Split polls may help BJD win all 4 RS seats comfortably

Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced by-election on June 13 for the Rajya Sabha vacancy arising out of the resignation of Subhash Chandra Singh, who was elected Cuttack mayor in March. The decision comes a day after the ECI announced polling for three other Rajya Sabha seats in the state, among 57 in the country, on June 10.
The separate election schedule, that of three seats on one day and another at a later date, comes as good news for the BJD as it is now certain of wining all four seats comfortably given the formula in which RS voting is calculated — total number of votes (MLAs) divided by vacant RS seats plus one and then add one to it.
A candidate needs 37 first preference votes of MLAs to win any of the first three vacancies. With the assembly’s effective strength now at 146, the calculation will be [146/(3+1) +1], with three being the vacant seats and one added to it.
The BJD, with 113 MLAs against the requirement of 101, is in a comfortable position to win all three in case there is a contest. Similarly, for the lone seat where voting will be held separately, 74 first preference votes are needed — [146/(1+1) + 1].
However, if elections for all the four seats were held simultaneously, each candidate would have required 30 votes. To win all four, the BJD would then have required 120 votes. While it would have won three, the fourth would have been a contest with no party having the clear numbers given that BJP has 22 MLAs, Congress nine with others winning two.
The filing of nominations for three seats are scheduled from May 24 to 31, while that for the seat vacated by Singh will be from May 26 to June 3.
A government official said the ECI took out separate schedules because the first three seats are part of the biennial elections for the Council of States with N Bhaskar Rao, Prasanna Acharya and Sasmit Patra scheduled to complete their full tenure on July 1. However, byelection for the seat which fell vacant due to Singh’s resignation was necessitated due to his premature resignation before completion of his tenure on April 2, 2026. A member elected in place of Singh will have around four years in Rajya Sabha, the official added.