Bhubaneswar:The Secretariat of Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) on Thursday issued formal notification for the by-election to a Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha lying vacant following the resignation of BJD MP Subash Singh.
As per the notification, candidates can file their nomination papers for the by-poll till June 2 while the papers will be scrutinized on June 3. The candidates can withdraw their nominations till June 6.
If required, the polling will be held from 9 AM to 4 PM on June 13 while counting will take place at 5 PM on June 13.
BJD MP Subhas Chandra Singh resigned from the post in April after he was elected as Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC). The poll is being held for the rest of the period that is from April 24, 2022 to April 24, 2026.
Earlier, the Assembly had issued notification for the biennial poll for three RS seats from Odisha. The poll will be held on June 10 as the tenure of three Rajya Sabha members from Odisha – N Bhaskar Rao, Prasanna Acharya and Sasmit Patra will end on July 1.
The BJD is set to win all the four RS seats with a strength of 113 in an Assembly of 147. The BJP and Congress with 22 and 9 seats in the Assembly do not have the numbers to win a seat.
Speculation is rife in the ruling BJD over candidates for the new vacancies as all the four seats were held by the party.
Senior BJD leaders including those who have not got any position for a long time, those who lost the election and those who have recently joined the party are lobbying hard to get a party ticket for the election. There is buzz within the party that the Party Supremo might pick at least a woman candidate for the election.
Names of many leaders including Sasmit Patra , Pradeep Majhi, Sulata Deo, Shrimayee Mishra, Prasanna Patsani, Santosh Amat, Susmita Bagchi and Manas Mangaraj are doing the rounds.
However, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will take the final call. Naveen, who always takes surprise moves by picking up a candidate at the grassroots level, may also repeat the same in this poll.