BHUBANESWAR: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Pratap Keshari Deb was today elected uncontested to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha.
Odisha Assembly secretary AK Sarangi, the returning officer for the election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat, announced Deb's election to the upper house.
The by-election was necessitated after former minister Bishnu Charan Das resigned from the Rajya Sabha in March following his appointment as the deputy chairman of the Odisha State Planning Board. The opposition Congress and the BJP had not fielded any candidate for the by-poll.
"I will raise issues relating to Odisha's interest in the Rajya Sabha. I am grateful to party president Naveen Patnaik for sending me to the upper house of Parliament," Deb told mediapersons after he was announced elected to the Rajya Sabha unopposed.
Deb is a spokesperson of the ruling BJD. He resigned from the post of chairman of the Odisha State Housing Board after he filed his nomination papers for elections to the Rajya Sabha seat on May 15.
He served as a minister of state with independent charge as food supplies and consumer welfare, employment, technical education and training and information technolgy from August 2, 2012 to May 21, 2014 in the previous BJD government.
Deb had won the assembly elections thrice in a row in 2000, 2004 and 2009 from Aul seat. He, however, lost the 2014 assembly election to Congress candidate Debendra Sharma.