Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday announced Debashish Samantray as its candidate for the upcoming Rajya Sabha by-election from Odisha, officially fielding him for the lone seat going to polls in the state.
Reacting after being named the party’s candidate, Samantray expressed gratitude to the BJP leadership for reposing faith in him. “The BJP has placed faith in me. I will do whatever is required for the development of the state,” he told reporters.
The announcement comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued the schedule for biennial elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats across 10 states and by-elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
According to the ECI notification, polling for the Rajya Sabha elections will be held on June 18 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., while counting of votes will commence at 5 p.m. on the same day.
The nomination process began on June 1. Candidates can file their nomination papers until June 8, while scrutiny of nominations will take place on June 9. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is June 11.
Apart from the Rajya Sabha elections, biennial elections for nine seats and one by-election to the Bihar Legislative Council, along with elections to seven seats of the Karnataka Legislative Council, will also be conducted during the same period.
With the BJP naming Samantray as its nominee, the focus now shifts to the filing of nominations and the electoral process leading up to the June 18 poll.
