Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday issued a notification for the poll schedule for the by-elections to the six vacant Rajya Sabha seats which include 3 seats in Odiha, 1 seat in Bihar and 2 seats in Gujarat.
According to the notification, the last date for filing of nomination is June 25. The scrutiny of the nominations will be held on 26th and last date for withdrawal of candidates is 28th of June. If necessary, voting for the bypolls will be held on July 5 and counting will be held on the same day after 5 pm.
At present, four Rajya Sabha seats of Odisha have fallen vacant. While Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Achyut Samant and Anubhav Mohanty had tendered their resignations earlier, another member, Pratap Deb, recently resigned from the Upper House.
As the tenure of Anubhav Mohanty will expire after a year, the bypolls will be held for the three seats vacated by Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Achyut Samant and Pratap Deb.
While the tenures of Soumya Ranjan and Achyut Samant were set to expire in April 2024, Pratap Deb’s term was to expire in July 2022.
BJD sources said party supremo Naveen Patnaik will announce the name of the three candidates before June 25. Since the BJD has an absolute majority in the State Assembly, it will occupy three seats without any contest.