Rajya Sabha polls in Odisha on June 11

The Odisha legislative assembly secretariat on Tuesday announced elections will be held on June 11 to three Rajya Sabha seats from the state falling vacant from July 1.

"Election is to be held for 3 members to the Council of States by the elected members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly in pursuance of Election Commission's Notification No 318/CS/2/2016(1), dated May 24,2016," said the notification issued by the returning officer.

Assembly Secretary A K Sarangi said while the last date for filing of nomination is May 31, the verification of the nomination paper would be held on June 1 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 3.

The tenure of three Rajya Sabha members - Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Bhupinder Singh and Baishnab Pariba - is ending on July 1 and BJD is certain to win the three seats given the numbers in the state assembly. To win, a candidate needs preference votes of 37 MLAs and the BJD has 117 MLAs in the 147-member assembly. Meanwhile, hectic lobby has started within the ruling BJD.

"BJD is certain send its nominees to the upper house. Chief Minister and party president Naveen Patnaik would take the final call over this," said BJD spokesperson Sashibhusan Behera.

--IANS

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