Bhubaneswar: After giving away a sure-shot Rajya Sabha seat, which it could have otherwise won on its own strength, to BJP, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) went ahead and gifted a five-year term seat to the saffron nominee while retaining a half-term seat for itself. The party has asked its candidate Sashmit Patra to file nomination for a seat having a three-year tenure.
Three RS seats fell vacant after BJD’s Achyuta Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik resigned from Rajya Sabha after being elected to Lok Sabha and Assembly in the recently concluded general elections. While Samanta was elected from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, Deb and Patnaik won from Aul and Khandapada Assembly segments, respectively. The tenures of seats vacated by Samanta and Patnaik will end April 3, 2024, whereas the Upper House seat vacated by Deb will end July 1, 2022. Though the BJD has sufficient strength in Assembly to win all three RS seats, it has chosen to surrender one seat having five-year term to BJP, while retaining a half-year term for itself.
BJD’s Sasmit Patra has filed nomination papers for the seat vacated by PK Deb while Amar Patnaik will replace Samanta in the Rajya Sabha.