BJD fields 4 RS MPs, assures LS member berth in Upper House

BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Wednesday assured sitting MP of Bhubaneswar Prasanna Patsani a Rajya Sabha seat, while fielding four members of the Upper House in the coming elections for Lok Sabha and Odisha assembly.

"Patsani will be given a Rajya Sabha berth," Patnaik said while denying party ticket to the five-time MP from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat.

Retired IPS officer and former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik replaced Patsani as the BJD candidate in the Bhubaneswar Parliamentary seat.

Patnaik has named four Rajya Sabha MPs as candidates in three Lok Sabha seats and in one assembly constituency.

RS member Prasanna Acharya has been fielded from Bargarh Lok Sabha seat while Achyut Samanta is the party candidate in Kandhamal Parliamentary constituency.

The BJD has also made filmstar turned Rajya Sabha MP Anubhav Mohanty the candidate for Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat. Mohanty will face four-time MP Baijayant Panda of the BJP.

Yet another Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Keshari Deb has been made a BJD candidate in Aul assembly seat.

Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly constituencies where simultaneous polls will be held in four phases from April 11.

In 2014 elections, Patnaik had fielded the then Rajya Sabha MP S B Behera and Rabi N Mohapatra in the assembly elections. Both Behera and Mohapatra were elected and the former is now the state's finance minister.

Patnaik has also assured a Rajya Sabha berth to Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik, a five-time MLA from Berhampur. He has been denied a ticket to contest the 2019 elections.

Of the Odisha's 10 MPs in Rajya Sabha, nine belonged to the ruling BJD.