Bhubaneswar: Rajya Sabha nominees of Governing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia today filed their nomination papers before the Returning Officer for the RS polls.
The two leaders submitted two sets of nomination papers to the Returning Officer in presence of BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Senior BJD leader and Minister Niranjan Pujari, Government Chief Whip Prasanta Muduli, senior MLA Pratap Jena and many other senior leaders present during their filing of nominations.
Chief Minister was the proposer for Shri Khuntia while BJD MLA Manohar Randhari proposed the name of Shri Samantaray, said Returning Officer Abanikanta Patnaik.
As per the guidelines of Election Commission of India (ECI), receipts have been provided to the two candidates. The last date for filing of nomination papers is February 15 and tomorrow will be a holiday in view of Saraswati Puja, he informed.
While polling will be held on February 27 between 9 am and 4 pm, the counting of votes will be conducted at 5 pm the same day, as per schedule.
Notably, three Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha are set to become vacant in April following the completion of the terms of Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, and BJD MPs Prashant Nanda, and Amar Patnaik. Therefore, the election for three RS seats is being conducted in the state.
Though the BJD has the majority to win all three RS seats in the ensuing polls, it has nominated only two candidates so far, which has fumed a debate on who will be the black horse this time.
Whether the party will field a new surprising candidate, or support any other one like lastime it supported Ashwini Vaishnaw of BJP has become a topic of discussion among political circles in Odisha.
