Putting speculation to rest, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal president Naveen Patnaik on Saturday announced the names of his party’s candidates for elections to the four Rajya Sabha seats in the State.
Also read | RS polls: political arithmetic to largely remain unchanged
Subhas Singh, Munna Khan, Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mahanta will be the candidates for the elections scheduled on March 26.
While Mr. Singh was the chairman of the Odisha Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare Board, Mr. Khan was adviser to the Minorities Affairs Department and Mr. Kumar was adviser to the Special Development Council. Ms. Mahanta is a prominent leader of the party women’s wing in Mayurbhanj district. They belonged to coastal, southern, western and northern regions respectively.
Earlier, there was speculation that the BJD may not field a candidate for the fourth seat if it enters into any kind of understanding with the BJP. The party had supported BJP nominee Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Rajya Sabha polls last year following requests from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Of the four seats now going to the polls, one was vacated by BJD’s Anubhav Mohanty following his election to the Lok Sabha last year and the terms of Narendra Kumar Swain, Sarojini Hembram (both BJD) and Ranjib Biswal of the Congress were due to end early next month.
Going by the membership strength of different parties in the Assembly, the BJD is placed in a comfortable position to win three seats. There may be a contest for the fourth seat if the BJP fields a candidate.
While the BJD has 113 members in the 147-member House, the BJP has 23, the Congress nine, the CPI(M) one and one is an Independent legislator.
The BJD may succeed in winning all four seats as the BJP does not have the number required to win a seat on its own. The Congress is unlikely to contest.
