In a move that challenges electoral arithmetic as much as it tests political goodwill, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday announced former corporate businessman Santrupt Mishra and urologist Datteswar Hota for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Odisha despite having the numbers to send just one MP.
Four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha will become vacant after the term of BJP MPs Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mohanta, and BJD MPs Niranjan Bishi and Muzibulla Khan alias Munna Khan ends.
BJD president Naveen Patnaik named entrepreneur-turned-politician Santrupt Misra for the third seat and urologist Dr Datteswar Hota for the fourth, while making a pointed appeal to all political parties to back Hota as a “common candidate.” With 79 MLAs and three independent MLAs supporting it, the BJP can comfortably secure two seats with a surplus of 20 votes. The BJD, with 50 votes, can claim one seat with 20 votes remaining. The fourth seat becomes the crucible where ambitions collide.
Dr Hota is a founding Vice-Chancellor of the Odisha University of Health Sciences and former principal of SCB Medical College and Hospital. The nomination of Santrupt Misra for the safer third seat was near certain considering his proximity to Patnaik. Misra joined the BJD ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and contested from Cuttack, where he was defeated. After the 2024 loss, he was announced as political secretary to the former chief minister, signalling that Patnaik continues to look beyond the traditional political class.
Political analyst Rabi Das said that the ruling BJP has limited incentive to rescue a principal rival from its own numerical shortfall. “This attempt by Naveen Patnaik is as much a message to his own ranks as it is to the opposition that the BJD may be diminished but not dismantled,” he said.