Polls to 4 Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha on March 26

Bhubaneswar: The biennial election to four Rajya Sabha seats of Odisha will be held on March 26, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said in a release on Tuesday.

Terms of four Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha– Anubhav Mohanty, Narendra Kumar Swain, Sarojini Hembram and Ranjib Biswal– are due to expire on April 2, 2020, the release said.

Anubhav Mohanty has already been elected to the Lok Sabha during the 2019 general elections.

The biennial elections to the Council of States to fill the seats of 55 members of Rajya Sabha from 17 states, retiring in April 2020, will be held on 26th March.

The elections will be held as per the following schedule:

Issue of Notification: March 2, 2020

Last Date of Making Nominations: March 13, 2020

Scrutiny of Nominations: March 16, 2020

Last Date of Withdrawal of Nominations: March 18, 2020

Date of Poll: March 26, 2020

Counting of Votes: March 26, 2020, at 5 pm

The BJD and Congress reacted to the announcement of the EC.

“We are not under pressure over seat-sharing. The final decision on selection of candidates will be taken by party supremo Naveen Patnaik which I am sure will be most beneficial for the party,” said BJD spokesperson Pramilla Mallick.

Notably, the ruling BJD can easily win three seats give the number in the Assembly. However, it would be difficult for the party to win the fourth seat.

“Congress can field a candidate with support from left-wing parties but the decision lies on the party’s top leadership. As far as BJP is concerned, the more pressure they put (on BJD) the more seats they will get,” said Congress MLA Narasingha Mishra.