Former legislator Debashish Samantaray and vice-president of Biju Janata Dal youth wing Subhasish Khuntia on Tuesday filed nomination for the Rajya Sabha election, which is scheduled on February 27.
Mr. Samantray and Mr. Khuntia came to Odisha Assembly and filed the nomination in presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Their election to the Upper House of Parliament is foregone conclusion as the BJD has 109 members (four expelled from the party) in the 147-member Assembly. The three candidates need 38 first preference votes each to win the election.
The confusion is prevailing over the third candidate as they are falling short of four votes even after getting the support of an independent MLA.
The term of three Rajya Sabha members from Odisha, including Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, is coming to end.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party has 22 members, the Congress has nine. The BJP is yet to announce its candidate. Meanwhile, one seat is vacant in the Assembly.
In 2019, Mr. Vaishnaw was elected to Upper House as BJP candidate with the help of BJD. As the BJD has not announced name of third candidate, Mr. Vaishnaw’s name has been doing round for his re-election to Rajya Sabha from Odisha in the political circle here. The Union Railway Minister, who hails from Rajasthan, was an IAS officer serving Collector of Cuttack and Balasore districts in Odisha. The 1994-batch IAS officer had worked till 2003. He quit the IAS job in 2010.
The speculation of Mr. Vaishnaw’s re-election is rife as the Union Minister is coming to Odisha on a two-day visit on February 14 and 15. He might file the nomination for Rajya Sabha during his stay here. The last filing nomination is February 15.
