Bhubaneswar: Voting for four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha is underway today, March 16, 2026, amid intense political maneuvering and efforts by major parties to prevent cross-voting. Five candidates are in the fray for the four vacancies, turning the contest for the final seat into a high-stakes battle between the ruling BJP and a combined opposition.
The Bharatiya Janata Party has fielded its State President Shri Manmohan Samal and re-nominated sitting MP Sujeet Kumar. While the BJP’s numbers in the assembly comfortably secure two seats, the party has also extended its support to independent candidate Dilip Ray, a move that has tightened the race for the fourth seat.
On the other side, the Biju Janata Dal has nominated Shri Santrupta Mishra, political secretary to Naveen Patnaik, and Dr. Datteswar Hota. Dr. Hota is being positioned as a common candidate supported by both the BJD and the Congress to counter the BJP’s influence.
Fears of cross-voting and horse-trading have reached a peak as voting begins for the Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha today. With a high-stakes battle for the fourth seat, political parties have gone to extreme lengths to keep their legislators from being influenced by rival camps.
The primary source of anxiety centers on the contest between Independent candidate Shri Dilip Ray, who is backed by the BJP, and the BJD-Congress joint candidate, Dr. Datteswar Hota. Since no single party has the 30 first-preference votes required to secure this final seat, every individual vote has become critical.
To safeguard their legislators from potential horse-trading, political parties took drastic measures over the weekend. The Congress shifted eight of its MLAs to a resort near Bengaluru, while the BJP moved its legislators to Paradip for specialized training and strategy sessions. Both groups returned to Bhubaneswar this morning to cast their votes at the Odisha Legislative Assembly.
The Congress party, particularly wary of poaching attempts, flew eight of its 14 MLAs to a private resort on the outskirts of Bengaluru last week. These legislators, supervised by Karnataka Deputy CM Shri D.K. Shivakumar, returned to Bhubaneswar just in time for the polls. Adding to the tension, Congress MLA Shri Dasarathi Gomango has reportedly been incommunicado since March 8, raising alarms within the party leadership. Shri Gomango has said the will vote as per his “Conscience”.
Similarly, the Governing BJP moved over 70 of its MLAs to a luxury hotel in Paradip for what it termed a specialized training session. This move was widely seen as a strategy to isolate the legislators and ensure total unity behind their official candidates, Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar, as well as their supported candidate, Shri Dilip Ray.
The Biju Janata Dal has also been on high alert. Former Chief Minister Shri Naveen Patnaik held mandatory evening meetings at his residence for three consecutive days to brief his MLAs on the voting process. Lawmakers were asked to stay over night at Naveen Niwas. The party is particularly concerned about a potential repeat of the 2002 elections, when Shri Dilip Ray won as an independent despite the party’s official stance, allegedly due to internal cross-voting.
Polling began at 9 am and is scheduled to continue until 4 pm, with the counting of votes expected to commence immediately afterward. The final results for all four seats are likely to be declared by late this evening.