Bhubaneswar: The process for filing nominations for three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha began Tuesday with the state Assembly secretariat issuing the notification for the poll to be held June 10.
The tenure of three Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha – Nekkanti Bhaskar Rao, Prasanna Acharya and Sasmit Patra will end July 1 and arrangements have been made to conduct the polling before the expiry of their tenures.
As per the notification, polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm June 10 and counting of votes will take place at 5 pm the same day.
The last date of filing nomination is May 31 and June 3 is the date for the withdrawal. The election process will be completed on June 13, 2022.
According to the notification, the by-election to the Rajya Sabha seat in the state which fell vacant due to the resignation of BJD’s Subhas Singh after he becoming mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation will be held on June 13. The process of nomination will start from May 26 and continue till June 2.
Singh was elected to the RS in 2020 and quit in April.
The ruling BJD, which has 113 MLAs in the 147-member House, is likely to capture all the four seats. The opposition BJP and Congress have 22 and nine MLAs respectively and may not contest.
The BJD is, however, yet to name its candidates for the RS poll.
“Our party president, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will take the final decision as to who will be the candidates. It will be done at the appropriate time,” BJD spokesman and MLA P K Deb said.
Meanwhile, a statement issued by BJD vice-president Usha Devi has sparked speculation that the regional party may filed women candidates for all the three RS seats going to the poll on June 10.
Usha Devi said in her statement on Monday, “The party had fielded woman candidates in large numbers in panchayat and urban local body elections and it won’t be surprising if the BJD president selects women for three vacant seats.”
The political circle here is abuzz with the names of OTDC chairperson Srimayee Mishra and ‘Mo School’ project chairperson Susmita Bagchi. However, a section of the BJD leaders feel that Patnaik may renominate Sasmit Patra, who was quite active during his stint in the RS.
The name of Pradeep Majhi, who joined BJD after quitting Congress ahead of panchayat polls, is also doing the rounds. He is a prominent tribal leader from the southern region of the state.
PTI
