Bhubaneswar: Nominees of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar — along with senior politician Dilip Ray filed their nomination papers on Thursday for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from Odisha.
The nominations were submitted at the State Legislative Assembly in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi and senior BJP leaders, including Jayanarayan Mishra.
Dilip Ray filed his nomination as an Independent candidate backed by the BJP to contest against Dr. Datteswar Hota, who has been fielded by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), for the crucial fourth Rajya Sabha seat. The elections are scheduled to be held on March 16.
Before filing his nomination, Ray paid tribute to his mentor and legendary leader Biju Patnaik on the occasion of the statesman’s birth anniversary. Expressing confidence about the contest, Ray said he expected to emerge victorious despite not having the required magic number of 30 first-preference votes in his favour. He recalled that he had earlier secured a Rajya Sabha seat in 2002 through cross-voting.
The BJP’s open support for Ray is widely viewed as a strategic move by the saffron party to secure three out of the four Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha. However, neither the BJP nor the BJD currently has the numbers required to independently win the fourth seat. Based on the present strength in the Assembly, the ruling BJP is expected to win two seats comfortably, while the BJD is likely to secure one seat.
According to the Rajya Sabha electoral formula, a candidate requires at least 30 first-preference votes to win a seat from Odisha. With the backing of 82 MLAs, the BJP is comfortably placed to win two seats and will still have 22 surplus votes, falling eight votes short of the number required to secure a third seat. As a result, the battle for the fourth seat is expected to turn into a keen political contest between Ray and BJD’s candidate Dr. Hota. The Indian National Congress has extended its support to Dr. Hota.
Meanwhile, BJP’s first nominee and the party’s Odisha president Manmohan Samal is set to enter the Upper House of Parliament after a gap of 22 years. A former state minister, Samal had lost the 2024 Assembly elections but was re-elected unopposed in July 2025 as the BJP’s state president for a fourth term. His leadership is widely credited for the BJP’s historic victory in the 2024 Odisha Assembly elections, which ended the 24-year rule of the BJD, as well as the party’s success in the Nuapada by-polls last year.
The other BJP nominee, Sujeet Kumar, is currently a sitting Rajya Sabha MP whose tenure is set to end in April. Kumar joined the BJP in September 2024 after resigning from the BJD and is now seeking another term in the Upper House with the party’s backing.
