Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Monday urged the Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to reject two “illegal” votes cast by two BJP MLAs during the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections and declare united opposition candidate Datteswar Hota as the winner in the fourth seat from the state.
The BJD made this demand when a delegation of the party, headed by Prasanna Acharya, deputy opposition leader in the Odisha Assembly, met Odisha CEO R S Gopalan in Bhubaneswar. The party submitted a memorandum to the CEO, where it justified its claim.
Earlier, the ECI had allotted time to the BJD to keep its stand before the Odisha CEO.
The BJD in its memorandum claimed that during the polling, two BJP MLAs – Upasana Mohapatra (Brahmagiri) and Purna Chandra Sethi (Khallikote), were allotted second ballot paper, which is in violation of the existing rules.
These two MLAs had voted in favour of the BJP-supported Independent candidate Dilip Ray, who eventually won the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from the state. Though both Ray and Hota had polled 23 first preference votes, Ray was declared the winner based on the second preference votes after the first preference votes were the same at 23.
While raising complaints that the two BJP MLAs were allowed the second ballot paper against the existing rules, their votes were considered valid despite BJD’s objections, leading to Ray’s victory.
The BJD said after rejecting the two votes cast by two BLP MLAs, Dilip Ray falls below the united opposition candidate Datteswar Hota on first preference votes. “Therefore, we demand Datteswar Hota be declared elected by the Election Commission of India,” the BJD said in its memorandum.
Calling it a grave violation of election rules, the BJD claimed that issuance of second ballot papers to the two BJP MLAs during the Rajya Sabha elections 2026 was “illegal”.
“The present case is not merely one of procedural impropriety. It is a case where statutory objections were contemporaneously recorded by every category of authorised electoral participant available under the election framework itself – polling agents, election agents, authorised party agents, counting agents, candidates, and parliamentary representatives – yet no satisfactory statutory explanation or action has been forthcoming despite repeated escalation,” the BJD said.
The BJD also said that this matter is capable of objective verification through contemporaneous documentary, electronic, photographic, audio, and video evidence forming part of the election record itself. “The issue, therefore, concerns not political interpretation, but institutional examination of statutory compliance within a constitutionally regulated election process,” it said.
The BJD delegation also urged the CEO to disclose the complete action taken on its complaints made on the very polling date, March 16, 2026 and the email by BJD president Naveen Patnaik on March 18, 2026.
The party also urged the ECI to take all consequential statutory and legal action warranted in accordance with the law.
PTI