Speculation on RS candidates starts

BHUBANESWAR: With three Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha falling vacant in the first week of April, speculation is rife in political circles here about the possible candidates to be selected by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to fill up the vacancies.

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. The term of AU Singhdeo, Dilip Tirkey and AV Swami will come to an end on April 3. While two of the MPs are from the BJD, Swami is an independent supported by the ruling party.

Though 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, sources maintained that all the three seats may not go to Western and Southern Odisha. 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 Dileep Tirkey also contested the 2014 polls from Sundargarh constituency unsuccessfully.

Even if a decision on retaining two of the three retiring MPs is taken by the party president Naveen Patnaik, sources say chances of Swami getting renominated are not so bright. 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 Parliament.

However, selection of candidates from outside the BJD cannot be ruled out altogether. Though several names are doing the rounds in this regard, anything concrete is yet to emerge. Rajya Sabha MP and party spokesperson Prasanna Acharya said there has been no deliberation on Rajya Sabha elections at any level of the party.