BJD to field Prashanta Nanda, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Achyuta Samanta in Odisha Rajya Sabha polls

Bhubaneswar: BJD candidates Prashanta Nanda, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Achyuta Samanta on Friday filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections from Odisha in Bhubaneswar. [caption id=“attachment_4267587” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. PTI[/caption] The three nominees filed their papers before the returning officer in the presence of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha and other senior party leaders. The trio filed papers for the three Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in April. While founder and editor of an Odiya daily Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and founder of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Bhubaneswar, Achyuta Samanta joined the BJD on Wednesday, Nanda was the spokesperson of the ruling party. Nanda, a film-actor-turned politician was elected to the state Assembly twice and had become a minister, while Soumya Ranjan Patnaik was elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996. Three seats in Rajya Sabha from the state will fall vacant as the tenure of BJD Members AU Singhdeo and Dilip Tirkey as well as BJD-backed Independent candidate AV Swami is scheduled to end on 2 April. However, taking into consideration the absolute majority of the BJD in the state Assembly with 118 members in the 147-member house, the election would be a formality even if the opposition fields any candidate. In the Assembly, Congress has 14 members and BJP 10 MLAs. As per the schedule announced by the Election Commission, the last date of filing nominations is 12 March, scrutiny of nominations on 13 March and the last date for withdrawal of candidature on 15 March. The polling would begin at 9 am and end at 4 pm while counting of votes and announcement of results would be made on 23 March. The poll process would be completed on 26 March.