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BJP leader Debashish Samantaray filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha by-election at the Odisha Assembly premises in Bhubaneswar on Friday.
He was accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Odisha BJP President Manmohan Samal, and other senior party leaders, underscoring the BJP's unified support for his candidature. Reflecting on his departure from the BJD, Samantaray asserted that Odia sentiments were hurt during the 2024 elections, claiming that the emergence of a person from South India as Naveen Babu's successor pushed the party significantly backward and ultimately caused its defeat. "First of all, I would like to thank Prime Minister Narendra Modi, our National President Nitin Nabin, Odisha State President Manmohan Samal, and the popular Chief Minister of the state, Mohan Majhi, for personally welcoming me in Delhi. There is a leadership crisis in my former party, the BJD. Naveen Babu is the main leader, but above him, there is a retired IAS officer from another state named V.K. Pandian. The reason I left the BJD is that Odia sentiments were hurt during the last election; a person from South India emerged as Naveen Babu's successor, which pushed the party significantly backwards and caused the party's defeat," said Samantaray. Earlier, on June 3, the Election Commission issued a notification for biennial elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats from ten states. This includes four seats each in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, three seats each in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, two seats in Jharkhand, and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya. Notification was also issued for the Rajya Sabha bypoll for a seat each in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. BJP has released the list of 11 candidates for the upcoming Biennial and Bye-elections to the Rajya Sabha. The BJP has fielded Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh; Rajubhai Shukla, Mukeshbhai Rathwa, Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya from Gujarat; Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal from Madhya Pradesh; A Sharda Devi from Manipur; and Alka Gurjar and Satish Poonia from Rajasthan. (ANI)
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