BHUBANESWAR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Saturday announced elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha which fell vacant as members resigned after they were elected to Lok Sabha and State Assembly.
The three seats were held by Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik of BJD. While Samanta was elected from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, Deb and Patnaik won from Aul and Khandapada Assembly segments in the recently held elections.
While Samanta and Patnaik had five years of their tenure left, Deb had completed three years.
However, the ECI has not announced election to the fourth Rajya Sabha seat which was vacated by BJD member Anubhav Mohanty who won from Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat.
Only 10 months of Mohanty’s tenure was left.
With 112 members in the Assembly, it will be easier for BJD to win all the three seats, though it will still need the help of Congress and CPM MLAs for the victory of the third candidate.
With three vacancies, a candidate will need 39 votes to win. The ruling BJD will need five more votes to win the third seat.
The Congress has nine members in the Assembly while CPM has won one seat. An Independent candidate has also won. Sources said the ruling BJD is likely to bank on the Congress members to win the third seat.
However, the Congress is yet to take any decision in this regard. The BJP with 23 MLAs does not have adequate numbers to field a candidate.
Meanwhile, lobbying by BJD leaders has already started for a berth in the Rajya Sabha.
There are large number of aspirants in the ruling BJD as Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had assured several leaders, who were denied tickets in the recently held elections, of a berth in the Upper House.