Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The Odisha Assembly declared on Friday that Sujeet Kumar, the candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had been elected to the Rajya Sabha without facing any opposition. On December 9, Kumar filed his candidacy papers for Odisha’s only open Rajya Sabha seat. Kumar was proclaimed the victor as no other contenders submitted nominations. It’s interesting to note that he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2020 as a nominee of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), but he quit and joined the BJP.
He filed nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha by-election from Odisha as the BJP nominee. Kumar’s name was formally announced by the BJP’s Central Election Committee on Monday. During nomination, he was accompanied by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, BJP state president Manmohan Samal and other senior leaders of the party. As many as 30 MLAs were proposers in Kumar’s nomination papers. Kumar said he would focus on the development of infrastructure, road communications, tourism and other sectors.
In September of this year, Kumar, a BJD MP, resigned from the Rajya Sabha and joined the BJP. On November 26, the Election Commission of India declared by-elections to six Rajya Sabha seats, including one from Odisha, to fill the seat he had left empty. Mamata Mohanta, a prominent member of the Kudumi community from the Mayurbhanj area, had previously quit from both the BJD and the Rajya Sabha to join the BJP. She was later elected as a BJP member to the Rajya Sabha without facing any opposition. The regional party now has seven members in the Upper House of Parliament after two BJD MPs resigned from the Rajya Sabha.
