Bhubaneswar: With the Election Commission on Wednesday announcing Rajya Sabha elections for 37 seats in 10 states, including 4 from Odisha, speculation has intensified over possible nominees from the state.Based on their current assembly strengths, BJP is poised to win two seats and the BJD one, with no other party having numbers to secure the fourth. Buzz in political circles suggests the BJP and BJD may settle on a consensus candidate, likely an eminent Odia personality, for the fourth seat.
The biennial election on March 16 will fill the vacancies created by the expiry of terms of BJP’s Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mohanta and BJD’s Muzibulla Khan and Niranjan Bishi on April 2.With 79 MLAs and support from 3 Independents, BJP can comfortably secure 2 seats, while the BJD’s 50 MLAs will ensure another seat. The fourth seat would require an understanding between two of the three major parties, as Congress has only 14 MLAs.Speculation within the BJP centres on fielding a Odisha-born leader and possibly a national figure for the second seat. The party is expected to negotiate with BJD to seek support for a third seat, as the regional party backed it in 2019 and 2024 to send Ashwini Vaishnaw to the Upper House despite having the numbers to elect its own nominee at the time.Names doing the rounds within BJP include state unit president Manmohan Samal, who led the party’s assembly election campaign; Odisha in-charge and former Rajya Sabha MP Vijaypal Singh Tomar; and former state BJP president Samir Mohanty. The party may also consider re-nominating Sujeet Kumar, who returned to the Rajya Sabha in a Dec 2024 by-election after quitting the BJD. Names of former Odisha governor and Jharkhand ex-CM Raghubar Das, and former Union minister Smriti Irani, are also doing the rounds.Within the BJD, corporate leader-turned-politician Santrupt Misra, who contested from the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat in 2024, is being mentioned as a possible nominee. Sujata Karthikeyan, former IAS officer who took voluntary retirement and wife of V K Pandian, is another name appearing in party discussions.
