Twin polls in Odisha creates four Rajya Sabha vacancies

Four Rajya Sabha seats have fallen vacant from Odisha after resignation of sitting Biju Janata Dal(BJD) members who were elected to the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly during the recently held twin polls in the state.

“All the four sitting Rajya Sabha members have already resigned after their elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly”, highly placed BJD sources told DH on Thursday.

In an unprecedented move, the Naveen Patnaik led ruling BJD had fielded as many as six sitting Rajya Sabha members from different Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies. Of them two had lost the polls while four had emerged winners.

Among the winners, movie star-turned-politician, Anubhav Mohanty drubbed BJP heavyweight and party’s national vice-president Baijayant Panda by a handsome margin of more than 1.5 lakh votes in the prestigious Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat. Similarly, activist-turned-politico, Achyuta Samanta had defeated three time former Lok Sabha member Kharavela Swain in Kandhamal Parliament constituency.

Two other sitting Rajya Sabha members – Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, son in law of late Congress heavyweight and former chief minister J B Patnaik and senior party spokesman, Pratap Deb won their respective Assembly seats of Khandapara in Khurda district and Aul in Kendrapara district, both in coastal region.

Two sitting BJD Rajya Sabha members who faced defeat in the twin polls are – senior party leader Prasana Acharya and woman tribal leader Sarojini Hembram. While Achrya lost the polls from western Odisha Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency, Hembaram was defeated by her BJP rival in Baripada assembly seat in north Odisha tribal dominated district of Mayurbhnaj.