Bhubaneswar: Sujeet Kumar, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate, has been elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha, as announced by the Odisha Assembly on Friday.
Kumar had submitted his nomination papers for the sole vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha on December 9. With no other candidates filing nominations, Kumar was declared the winner.
Interestingly, he had previously been elected to the Rajya Sabha as a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) nominee in 2020 but resigned and joined the BJP
He filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha by-election from Odisha as the BJP nominee.
Kumar’s name was formally announced by the BJP’s Central Election Committee on Monday.
During nomination, he was accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, BJP state president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders of the party.
As many as 30 MLAs were proposers in Kumar’s nomination papers.
Kumar said he would focus on the development of infrastructure, road communications, tourism and other sectors.
Kumar had resigned from the Rajya Sabha membership in September this year as a BJD MP and later joined the BJP. The seat vacated by him was lying vacant and the Election Commission of India on November 26 had announced by-elections to six Rajya Sabha seats including one from Odisha.
Earlier, senior Kudumi community leader from Mayurbhanj district Mamata Mohanta had also resigned from the Rajya Sabha as well as BJD and then joined the BJP. She was subsequently elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP member.
With the resignation of two BJD MPs from the Rajya Sabha, the number of members of the regional party in the Upper House of the Parliament has come down to seven.
