Bhubaneswar: Mumbai-based Odia businessman Harihara Mahapatra has been sidelined from the Rajya Sabha race in Jharkhand after failing to secure a proposer. Earlier speculation had suggested that Mahapatra, hailing from Odisha, was poised to contest the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in the state with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The seats in question are set to fall vacant as the tenures of BJP’s Samir Oraon and Congress’ Dhiraj Prasad Sahu in the Upper House of Parliament come to an end on May 3.
However, the BJP has put forward Jharkhand general secretary Pradeep Verma as the NDA candidate for the upcoming polls, while Sarfaraz Ahmed has been nominated as the candidate of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM)-led ruling coalition. Given the numerical advantage enjoyed by these parties, their election to the Upper House appears imminent. The nomination process, which commenced on March 4, concluded on March 11, with the withdrawal of candidature deadline set for March 14. Polling is slated to take place between 9 am and 4 pm on March 21 at the Jharkhand Assembly premises, with counting scheduled for the same day at 5 pm.
Mahapatra had garnered attention in December last year when he and his wife Preeti acquired a 19 per cent stake in the low-cost airline SpiceJet, investing Rs 1,100 crore and becoming the airline’s largest investors in the new fundraising round. Originally from Odisha, Mahapatra relocated to Mumbai to pursue a career in real estate development, while his wife hails from Vadodara. In 2016, with the backing of the BJP, Preeti had unsuccessfully contested as an independent candidate in the Rajya Sabha election from Uttar Pradesh, challenging then-Congress leader Kapil Sibal.
It’s worth noting that Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, also from Odisha, currently serves as a Member of Parliament in the Rajya Sabha, representing Madhya Pradesh.
While Mahapatra’s aspirations for a Rajya Sabha seat in Jharkhand have been dashed, his endeavors in the business and political spheres continue to command attention and interest.
