Bhubaneswar: Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and BJD candidates Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia were on Tuesday elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha from Odisha.
As there was one candidate for each seat in the election, there was no contest. The last date for nomination withdrawal was February 20 and no one dropped out. Therefore, the three candidates were declared the winners.
The returning officer will hand over the certificates to Vaishnaw of BJP and Samantaray and Khuntia of BJD, the three winning candidates.
It may be noted that former Barabati-Cuttack MLA Debasish Samantaray and Biju Yuba Janata Dal (BYJD) vice-president Subhasish Khuntia had filed their nominations from the ruling BJD for two seats of Rajya Sabha. Similarly, Ashwini Vaishnaw had filed his papers as the BJP nominee. The BJD had extended its support to his nomination as was the case during the former IAS officer’s election for the first term in 2019.
The BJD had the required strength to win all three vacant RS seats, but BJP needed its support with only 22 MLAs in the state Assembly.
These three seats will fall vacant on April 3, 2024, with the terms of Ashwini Vaishnaw and BJD leaders Prashanta Nanda and Amar Patnaik coming to an end.
