Bhubaneswar, May 27: The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the dates for the by-election to fill the vacant Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha on Wednesday. This seat became vacant after Debashish Samantaray’s resignation.
Samantaray resigned from both the BJD and the Rajya Sabha on Monday.
According to the schedule released by the Election Commission, the notification for the by-election will be issued on June 1. The last date for filing nominations is set for June 8, with the scrutiny of nomination papers taking place on June 9.
The deadline for withdrawing nominations is June 11. The Commission also stated that voting will occur on June 18, from 9 AM to 4 PM, with counting of votes starting at 5 PM on the same day. The entire election process is expected to be completed before June 20.
Notably, Samantaray was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2024, but he submitted his resignation to Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan. His term was supposed to last until April 3, 2030.
Samantaray’s resignation is viewed as a significant blow to the BJD, as he was one of the founding members of the party. In a letter to party chief Naveen Patnaik, he cited ongoing neglect as the reason for his resignation from the primary membership of the party. Following his departure, the strength of the regional party in the Rajya Sabha has now reduced to five members.
Just a day after resigning from the party, Samantaray joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday at the party headquarters in New Delhi. It is noteworthy that he has previously served as a legislator three times, representing the Tirtol and Barabati-Cuttack assembly constituencies during the terms of 2000-2004, 2009-2014, and 2014-2019.
Earlier, Samantaray had resigned from the BJD and shortly thereafter submitted his resignation to the Vice President and Rajya Sabha Chairman C.P. Radhakrishnan, thereby resigning from the upper house as well.
Before him, Mamata Mahant and Sujit Kumar were the other two Rajya Sabha members from the BJD who resigned before completing their term under the leadership of Naveen Patnaik.
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