Bhubaneswar: Sujeet Kumar, who recently quit the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), filed his nomination on Monday for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Odisha.
Kumar was accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Deputy Chief Minister KV Singhdeo, BJP state president Manmohan Samal, and 30 BJP MLAs, who signed his two sets of nomination papers as proposers.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the by-election for six Rajya Sabha seats, including one from Odisha, on November 26. The Odisha seat fell vacant following Kumar’s resignation from the Upper House on September 6 after severing ties with the BJD.
Before Kumar, Mamata Mohanta, a BJD leader from Mayurbhanj district, also resigned from the Rajya Sabha and the BJD. She later joined the BJP and was recently elected unopposed to the Upper House.
The last date for filing nominations is December 10, with polling scheduled for December 20.
Currently, six casual vacancies exist in the Rajya Sabha across four states: Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Haryana. As per the ECI’s latest notification, six separate by-elections will be held to fill these vacancies.
