Intense lobbying has started in the Biju Janata Dal for ticket to contest the biennial elections to four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.
The aspirants became further active after the Election Commission on Tuesday announced that polling for 55 Rajya Sabha seats, including four from Odisha, will be held on March 26.
While one seat was vacated by BJD’s Anubhav Mohanty following his election to the Lok Sabha last year, the terms of Narendra Kumar Swain, Sarojini Hembram of the BJD and Ranjib Biswal of the Congress were due to end on April 2 this year.
Many leaders had been holding meetings with senior BJD leaders to brighten their chances of fetching a party ticket to secure a berth in the Rajya Sabha.
Going by the number of MLAs different parties have in the State Assembly, the BJD is placed in a comfortable position to win three seats. In such a scenario, both BJD and main Opposition BJP are likely to fight for the fourth seat.
While the BJD has 113 members in the 147-member House, the BJP has 23, Congress has nine, CPI(M) has one and one is an Independent legislator.
Numbers game
According to political analysts, the BJD may succeed in winning the fourth seat too since the BJP does not have the required number of members to win a seat on its own and there is little chance of the Congress extending support to the BJP nominee.
If the BJP fields a candidate, the person will win only if the BJD decides not to field its candidate for the fourth seat. BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Pradipta Kumar Naik said that the party would soon decide about fighting for the fourth seat.
The Congress is unlikely to contest the polls since it cannot field a candidate on its own. The party can field a candidate with the support of the CPI(M), but it would be difficult to win since members of neither the BJD nor the BJP are likely to extend support to the party.