BHUBANESWAR: Lobbying has started in the BJD for three Rajya Sabha seats which will be vacant in April after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik made it clear that the ruling party will nominate political leaders.
The BJD had earlier nominated many non-political persons to the Upper House in the Parliament giving rise to disappointment among the aspirants from the party. “Candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls will have to be considered seriously and the names will be declared at the appropriate time,” the Chief Minister told media persons after his two-day visit to New Delhi. On whether political people will be selected, he said usually political people will go to Rajya Sabha.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced that three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha are among the total 59 seats for which elections will be held on March 23. The term of AU Singhdeo, Dilip Tirkey and AV Swami will come to an end on April 3, 2018. While two of the MPs are from the BJD, Swami is an independent supported by the ruling party.
As the by-poll to the Bijepur Assembly constituency is over, the focus is now on the Rajya Sabha elections. As the BJD is sure to win all the three seats with a strength of 117 in the Assembly of 147 members, the number of aspirants has already swelled in the ruling party. However, deliberations on selection of Rajya Sabha candidates is yet to start formally and a decision is yet to be taken on whether anyone of the retiring MPs will be renominated.
The names doing the rounds for a BJD ticket for the Rajya Sabha include former ministers Prashant Nanda, Rabi Narayan Nanda, Raghunath Mohanty and Bimbadhar Kuanr. The name of Munna Khan is also being discussed in BJD circles as there is no representation of minority community from Odisha in the Parliament.
However, selection of candidates from outside the BJD cannot also be ruled out altogether. While Swami is from Nuapada district, Singhdeo was elected to the State Assembly six times, five times from Balangir and once from Loisingha constituency. Singhdeo had contested the 2014 Assembly elections unsuccessfully. Former Hockey India captain Dilip Tirkey also contested the 2014 polls from the Sundargarh constituency unsuccessfully.