Bhubaneswar, Feb 13 (UNI) Former BJD MLA Debashish Samantray and Biju Yuba Janata Dal Vice President Subhasish Khuntia on Tuesday filed their nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha.
Both Samantray and Khuntia filed their nominations in presence of Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and other BJD leaders in the state Assembly.
Although election will be held for three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha, the BJD supremo on Monday had announced only two names leading to lot of political speculation about the third candidate.
The terms of Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Prashant Nanda and Amar Pattnaik who were elected to Rajya Sabha from Odisha will be expiring in April, 2024.
The ruling BJD had supported the candidature of Aswani Vaishnaw who had filed his nomination as BJP candidate for the Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha.
As per the ECI notification the last date of filing of nomination is February 15 while the last date of withdrawal is February 20.The election and counting of votes would be taken up on February 27.
Going by the strength of the ruling BJD in the Odisha Legislative Assembly it will be a foregone conclusion that all the three party candidates will be elected to the Upper House.
In the 147 members Odisha Assembly, the BJD has 117 members followed by BJP (19),Congress (9), CPI(M) one and an independent.
