Naveen Patnaik nominates two Rajya Sabha nominates and endorses BJP's candidate

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha Chief Minister whose party the Biju Janata Dal enjoys a clear majority in the state announced candidates for the by-elections to three Rajya Sabha seats, endorsing a BJP nominee
The BJD is fielding party's IT Cell head and former principal accountant general Amar Patnaik, party spokesperson Dr Sasmit Patra and supporting former 1994 Odisha cadre bureaucrat, Ashwini Vaishnaw who is the BJP's nominee from Odisha.

In a statement, the party said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah had both spoken to Patnaik seeking his party's support for Vaishaw. This also suggests a greater proximity between the BJD which stayed away from the anti-BJP alliance during the elections.

In his fifteen years as bureaucrat Vaishnaw also served as Private Secretary to former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee before moving on to the private sector.

Amar Patnaik, who joined the BJD before the elections, played a key role in designing the party's winning campaign strategies. Patra, also the BJD's secretary for minority affairs and the most articulate spokesperson of the party, had been overlooked during the elections.

The by-elections to three Rajya Sabha seats is to be held on July 5. These had been held by Pratap Keshari Deb who went on to win the Aul assembly seat, educational entrepreneur who won the Kandhamal LS seats and editor and politician Soumya Ranjan Patnaik who contested successfully for the Kandapada assembly in the recently held simultaneous polls.