Muppavarapu Venkaiah Naidu is an Indian politician who served as the 13th vice president of India from 2017 to 2022. He is the first Indian vice president born in independent India. He has also served as the minister of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation,Urban Development and Information and Broadcasting in the Modi Cabinet.
The Biju Janata Dal is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Odisha. It was founded by the former minister of mines and minerals of the Republic of India Naveen Patnaik on 26 December 1997 as a breakaway faction from the Janata Dal. The BJD is led by its founder as president of the party. The headquarters of the party is located in Forest Park,Bhubaneswar.
Sushma Swaraj was an Indian lawyer and politician,who served as the Minister of External Affairs of India in the first Narendra Modi government from 2014 to 2019. She was the second person to complete a 5-year term as the Minister of External Affairs,after Jawaharlal Nehru. A senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),Swaraj was the second woman to hold the office of Minister of External Affairs,after Indira Gandhi. She was elected seven times as a Member of Parliament and three times as a Member of the Legislative Assembly. At the age of 25 in 1977,she became the youngest cabinet minister of the Indian state of Haryana. She also served as 5th Chief Minister of Delhi for a short duration in 1998 and became the first female Chief Minister of Delhi.
Dilip Tirkey,is a former captain of the Indian field hockey team,politician and sports administrator. He was awarded Padma Shree in 2004. Currently he is the president of Hockey India.
Prasanna Acharya is a politician from Odisha,India who sits in the Rajya Sabha,the upper house of the Indian parliament. He is a member of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) political party.
Dharmendra Pradhan is an Indian politician serving as the Minister of Education and Minister of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship in the Government of India. An alumnus of Talcher College and Utkal University,he has also been the Minister of Petroleum &Natural Gas and the Minister of Steel.
Dilip Ray is an Indian politician and hotelier from the state of Odisha. He was formerly Union Minister of Steel,Coal and Parliamentary Affairs. Ray is the only Odia parliamentarian to be part of the Ministry of three Prime Ministers. He is the founder and CMD of Mayfair Group of Hotels,largely based in eastern India.
Debendra Pradhan is an Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He served as minister of state for surface transport and agriculture in the Second Vajpayee ministry.
The government of the Indian state of Odisha and its 30 districts consists of an executive,led by the Governor of Odisha,a judiciary,and a legislative branch.
Kalpataru Das was an Indian politician from the Odisha state. He belonged to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party. He won the Odisha Legislative Assembly election,1995 from Dharmasala constituency of Jajpur district,which he held consecutively from 1995-2014. On 2 August 2012,he was given the portfolio of Panchayati Raj Minister. From 3 April 2014,he was an MP of Rajya Sabha. In 2013,he was State Panchayati Raj Minister and Parliamentary Affairs Minister. He died on 25 July 2015,aged 67. He was cremated on Sunday evening at Bhotaka in Tehsil Kuakhia,Jajpur district,from where he belonged,by his eldest son BJD MLA Pranab Balabantaray.
Sarojini Hembram is an Indian politician from the Odisha state. She belongs to the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) party. She was elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly from Bangriposi in 2009 and became the minister for textile,handlooms and handicrafts in the Odisha Government. She was elected to the Rajya Sabha the Upper house of Indian Parliament in 2014 from Odisha.
Dr. Sudhanshu Trivedi is an Indian politician and former professor. A leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Member of Parliament from its Upper House,the Rajya Sabha. Trivedi is the Senior National Spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Bishnu Charan Das was an Indian politician from the state of Odisha. He was a leader of the Biju Janata Dal and had previously contested seats in Odisha Legislative Assembly from Jagatsinghpur seat.
N. Bhaskar Rao is an Indian politician from the state of Odisha. He is a leader of the Biju Janata Dal. His hometown is Rayagada. He was also Deputy Chairman of Odisha state's planning board and is also an industrialist.
Rajya Sabha elections were held in India in 2015 to elect eight members of the Rajya Sabha,the upper house of the Indian Parliament. Five by-elections were also held. The regular elections were held to fill seats in the States of Jammu and Kashmir,Kerala,and the Union Territory of Pondicherry.
Elections were held in India on 21 July and 8 August 2017 as nomination contests by state legislators routinely for ten members of the Rajya Sabha across three states,replacing those who retired in July and August 2017. The State Legislatures which contribute in this six-year minor elections/nomination cycle are Goa,Gujarat and West Bengal. The mechanism is the single transferable vote (STV) among legislators,meaning nominations may be unopposed contests. The open ballot is used rather than secret ballot,allowing public scrutiny.
Pratap Keshari Deb is an Indian politician from the state of Odisha. In May 2017,he won a bypoll to the Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha constituency which was vacated by Bishnu Charan Das when he was appointed chairman of Odisha State Planning Board. Pratap Deb filed a nomination and won the seat uncontested on 18 May 2017. He will complete the remainder of his term until 1 July 2022.
Ashwini Vaishnaw is an Indian politician and former IAS officer who is currently serving as the 39th Minister of Railways,55th Communications Minister and 2nd Electronics &Information Technology Minister in Government of India since 2021 and a member of the Rajya Sabha representing Odisha since 2019. He is a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Earlier in 1994,Vaishnaw joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in the Odisha cadre,and has worked in Odisha.
Amar Patnaik is a former Indian Audit and Accounts Service (IA&AS) officer under the Comptroller &Auditor General (CAG) of India and former Principal Accountant General (PAG) of Sikkim,Odisha,West Bengal,and Kerala. He opted for voluntary retirement,nine years before completion of his service and joined Biju Janata Dal in the presence of party president and CM Naveen Patnaik on 29 August 2018. Since 28 June 2019,he is the member of the Parliament of India representing Odisha in the Rajya Sabha and general secretary of the BJD Parliamentary Party office,the upper house. He heads the IT-Wing and is also a spokesperson of Biju Janata Dal.
Subhash Chandra Singh is a social activist,people leader and policy maker from the State of Odisha,India. He is the first directly elected Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation,acting Treasurer of Biju Janta Dal and General Secretary of Biju Sramika Samukhya. Previously he has also been member of Rajya Sabha from Odisha and has also served as National spokesperson for BJD. He was elected for Rajya Sabha on 24 March 2020. Being one of the most trusted senior leaders in BJD,he holds the position of Party Treasurer of Biju Janta Dal since 2016.
