Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fielded former MP Sujeet Kumar as its Rajya Sabha candidate from Odisha. If elected, he will continue to represent state in the upper house of Parliament for second time. 

The politician is likely to file his nomination papers later in the day today. 

In 2020, Kumar was nominated to the Rajya Sabha on the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) ticket. He resigned from the post as the BJD MP on September 6 following which the party expelled him same day for 'anti-party activities'. His term was to conclude on April 2, 2026.

Soon after his resignation from Rajya Sabha membership and termination from the BJD, he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the party's national headquarters in Delhi in the presence of the party's Odisha in-charge Vijaypal Singh Tomar, BJP leaders Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhartruhari Mahtab, and former BJP Odisha in-charge Arun Singh. 

The bypoll to the Rajya Sabha seat, which is lying vacant after Sujeet Kumar's resignation, from Odisha is scheduled to be held on December 20 as per the Election Commission of India (ECI) notification. 

The voting will be held between 9 am and 4 pm on the scheduled date and the counting will be done at 5 pm on the very day.