BJD Declares Support for BJP’s Ashwini Vaishnaw in Rajya Sabha Polls

Bhubaneswar: After BJP announced Union Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as its candidate for the upcoming elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha, the BJD on Wednesday declared its support for Vaishnaw in the polls.

Through a press release, the BJD party expressed that the party has decided to support Ashwini Vaishnaw for the larger interest of the State’s Railways and Telecom development.

The press release stated, “Biju Janata Dal will support the candidature of Ashwini Vaishnaw for the larger interest of State’s Railways and Telecom development in the ensuing election to Rajya Sabha-2024.”

Ashwini Vaishnaw was also elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP candidate in 2019 with the support of the BJD.

BJD’s Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha elections on Tuesday.

Considering the strength of the BJD in the Odisha Legislative Assembly, the victory of Samantray, Khuntia and Vaishnaw is certain.

As per the schedule, the polling for the Rajya Sabha seats will be held on February 27 between 9 am and 4 pm. The counting of votes will be conducted on the same day at 5 pm.