The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued a notification to hold by-polls to the three Rajya Sabha seats vacant in Odisha.
According to the notification, filing of nominations was to begin from June 18 and continue till June 25. Nominations would be scrutinized on June 26. Last date for withdrawal of candidatures is June 28. Voting would be conducted on July 5 between 9 am to 4 pm and counting of votes to be held at 5 pm on the day. The whole election process would be completed before July 9.
Notably, the three seats have been vacant due to resignation of Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik after their wins from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, Ali and Khandapada Assembly seats, respectively, in the recently-held elections.
Samanta and Patnaik’s tenures in the Upper House were to end in April 2024 while Deb’s term was till July 2022.
Since each RS candidate will require support of 38 MLAs to win, it is certain that BJD, which has 111 MLAs, would retain all the three seats.
