Anubhav files nomination papers for RS poll

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar: Odia film actor-turned-politician Anubhav Mohanty on Monday filed nomination papers as the candidate of the ruling Biju Janata Dal for the lone Rajya Sabha seat for which election was scheduled to be held on June 19.Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik and other BJD leaders accompanied Anubhav when he filed his nomination papers with the Returning Officer at the State Assembly here.Patnaik himself was the proposer for Anubhav in the nomination papers of the actor-turned-politician.Anubhav was all set to win the election on June 19 as BJD had adequate number of legislators and no other party had fielded any candidate for the poll.Anubhav, a popular actor of Odisha, had joined the BJD a few months before the recently held general elections.He had extensively campaigned for the BJD nominees in a large number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.As Patnaik had failed to make Anubhav a party candidate for any Lok Sabha and Assembly seat, he had assured the actor to make him the party nominee for the Rajya Sabha election.Patnaik’s assurance had come before the recently held polls after it was decided that former Minister A.U.Singh Deo, who had been elected to the Rajya Sabha earlier, will continue as a Member of the State Assembly and contest the Assembly election from Balangir seat.Singh Deo had consequently lost the Assembly election.