TV
Bhubaneswar: Odisha Legislative Assembly (OLA) today issued notification for the by-election to the lone Rajya Sabha seat remaining vacant after A U Singhdeo failed to join the Upper House of the Parliament.
The Secretary of the OLA Amiya Kumar Sarangi, who is also the Returning Officer, said nominations for the Rajya Sabha polls began today.
The candidates can file their papers till June 9 while scrutiny of nominations will be held on June 10. Candidates can withdraw their nomination papers by 3 PM on June 12, the notification said.
Polling will be held on June 19 between 9 AM and 4 PM in the OLA premises while votes will be counted from 5 PM onwards the same day, the notification said.
Earlier, the Election Commission had directed states to complete the by-poll process by June 21.
Though A U Singhdeo was elected to the Rajya Sabha along with BJD's Kalpataru Das and Sarojini Hembram and Congress' Ranjib Biswal, he (Singhdeo) could not join the Upper House of the parliament as he contested the assembly elections from Balangir.
Singhdeo, however, was defeated in the asssembly elections.
Two more Rajya Sabha seats from Odisha would also be vacant as two members- Sashibhushan Behera and Rabinarayan Mohapatra- have won the assembly polls. While Sashibhusan has resigned from the Rajya Sabha, Mohapatra is yet to submit his papers.
