Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India Thursday formally issued a notification for the election of four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha, with polling scheduled March 16.
According to the notification, the last date for filing nominations is March 5, while scrutiny of papers will be taken up March 6. Candidates are allowed to withdraw their nominations till March 9, it said.
The notification said that the polling will be held March 16 from 9 am to 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place at 5 pm on the same day.
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The Election Commission of India has stated that the entire election process will be completed by March 20.
The biennial elections to the Upper House of the Parliament was necessitated as the tenure of four Rajya Sabha members from Odisha – Niranjan Bishi and Munna Khan of BJD and Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mohanta (BJP) – ends April 2. Members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly will elect the four RS candidates.
No political party has so far named any candidate for the four Rajya Sabha seats.
Odisha BJP in-charge, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, said, “The party has already held its core committee meeting here in Bhubaneswar and sent some names for the RS polls. The BJP’s Parliamentary party will decide on candidates.”
BJD spokesperson Lenin Mohanty said party president Naveen Patnaik will take a final call on the RS candidate at the appropriate time.
Keeping in view the party position in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the ruling BJP is set to win two seats, while one berth will go to the opposition BJD candidate.
For the fourth seat, neither the BJP nor the BJD have the required number of MLAs to win the seat.
In the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independents, taking its total strength to 82 votes. The BJD’s tally stands at 48 following the suspension of two of its legislators last month. The Congress has 14 MLAs, and the CPI(M) has one.
A candidate requires at least 30 first-preference votes to win one Rajya Sabha seat.
As the BJP has the support of 82 members, it can easily win two seats (30+30), and the saffron party would have 22 surplus votes.
The BJD, after electing one member, would be left with 18 surplus votes.
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