BJP Declares Railway Min Ashwini Vaishnaw as Its Rajya Sabha Candidate from Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Wednesday declared Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw as its candidate for the upcoming elections to three vacant Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.

On Tuesday BJD’s Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia filed their nominations for the Rajya Sabha elections. There were speculations regarding the third vacant seat as the BJD did not declare a third candidate.

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

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

Three Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha– Ashwini Vaishnaw, Amar Patnaik and Prashanta Nanda– are to retire from the Upper House of the Parliament in April.