Naveen Patnaik is yet to name anyone as the party's candidate for the election
Nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha began today with the Election Commission issuing a notification in this regard.
"We have pasted the EC notification in our notice board. Nomination for the lone Rajya Sabha seat will continue till May 15. District collectors have also been told to display the notification in their offices," Odisha Assembly secretary Amiya Kumar Sarangi said.
Scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on May 16 and candidates can withdraw their papers by May 18.
In case of more than one candidates, voting would take place on May 25, Sarangi said adding that counting of votes would begin on the same day at 5 PM.
The Rajya Sabha election in Odisha is required after Bishnu Charan Das of BJD resigned from the House on March 21 following his appointment as deputy chairman of Odisha State Planning Board. His term of office would have ended on July 1, 2022.
Keeping in view the number of MLAs, ruling BJD's candidate is likely to get elected to the lone RS seat.
BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik is yet to name anyone as the party candidate for the election, several names like Pratap Deb, Raghunath Mohanty, Bhupinder Singh and Bimbadhar Kuanr are doing the rounds.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)