Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw BJP’s Rajya Sabha candidate from Odisha

The BJP on Wednesday released another list of Rajya Sabha candidates nominating railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw from Odisha. The Rajya Sabha election is to be held on February 27. Vaishnaw was elected to the Rajya Sabha in 2019 with the help of the BJD. As this time too, BJD did not announce the name of a third candidate - its two candidates are Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia -- it was speculated that Vaishnaw would get re-elected to the Rajya Sabha and the BJD would support.

Railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw BJP's Rajya Sabha candidate from Odisha(ANI )

Ashwini Vaishnaw is from Rajasthan but served in Odisha as an IAS officer before he quit his IAS job in 2010.

In the second list, BJP announced the names for Madhya Pradesh and Odisha.