Four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha up for grabs

BHUBANESWAR: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Friday announced the bypoll to the Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha, which has been necessitated due to resignation of BJD member Subhash Chandra, on June 13.

According to the ECI, notification for the by-election will be issued on May 26. The last date of filing nomination papers will be June 2 while scrutiny will be done on June 3. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be June 6. The ECI said polling will be held from 9 am to 4 pm on June 13 and counting at 5 pm the same day.

Singh resigned after he was elected as the mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation. He was elected to the Rajya Sabha on April 20, 2020 and resigned on April 22, 2022. Earlier on Thursday, the ECI had announced elections to three RS seats from the State on June 10 as terms of three BJD members Prasanna Acharya, N Bhaskar Rao and Sasmit Patra will be over on July 1.

The BJD is in a position to win all the four seats as it has a strength of 122 members in the Assembly. The BJP and Congress do not have the numbers to win a single seat. Speculation is rife in BJD about the replacements as the ruling party is likely to announce the 4 candidates during May end or June first week.