2 MEDIA BARONS INDUCTED INTO BJD, MAY GET RS TICKET

BHUBHANESHWAR: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik inducted the owners of two regional media houses into his Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday and picked both as party candidates for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 23. The chief minister announced the candidatures of Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, editor of Odia daily Sambad, and Achyuta Samanta, founder of the Kalinga Institue of Industrial Technology and owner of Kalinga TV, hours after welcoming them to the Biju Janata Dal. The two media owners joined the BJD less than two months after the CM suspended party MP Baijayant Panda for alleged anti-party activities. Panda has described the allegations as false and baseless. Panda’s wife owns Odisha TV (OTV), one of the most widely watched channels in the state. The CM chose party MLA Prashant Nanda, a former Odia cine star, as the party’s other candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls. Incidentally, the chief minister had dropped Nanda as higher education minister in 2001 amid corruption charges.