Bhubaneswar: BJD president and Orissa Chief
Minister Naveen Patnaik today said his party would field
candidates for all the three Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant
on July one.
"BJD will nominate three candidates for the coming Rajya
Sabha elections," Patnaik said.
Pyarimohan Mohaptra would be renominated to the Upper
House and two other candidates would be finalised after
consulting party leaders, he said.
Mohapatra is a senior leader who worked "very hard" for
the party, the chief minister said.
Mohapatra is among the three RS MPs whose tenure would
expire on July 1, the others being Radhakanta Nayak (Congress)
and Bhagirathi Majhi (BJP).
The BJD chief, however, rejected the idea of supporting
an independent candidate for the third post for which the
ruling party did not have required number of first preference
votes.
In the 147-member Orissa Assembly, BJD has 103 members
followed by Congress (27), BJP (six), NCP (four), CPI (one)
and the rest six are independents.
As each candidate requires at least 37 first preference
vote, BJD`s first two nominated persons could get 74 votes
while its third choice will require eight more votes.
BJD could gather eight more support from NCP (4) and CPI
(1) and three others from among the independents, said party
vice-president Damodar Rout.
PTI
