Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: Three BJD leaders from Odisha - Prasanta Nanda, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik and Achyuta Samanta took oath as Rajya Sabha members in presence of Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu, the ex-officio Chairman of the upper house today.
Earlier on March 15, the ruling party candidates were elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha after returning officer Patil Rajesh Prabhakar rejected the candidature of independent candidate Subash Mohapatra due to lack of proposers in his support.
The three elected BJD members assumed office in place of BJD MPs Dilip Tirkey, AU Singh Deo and BJD-backed independent candidate AV Swami, whose tenure ended last month.