Bhubaneswar: Soon after returning from New Delhi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today clearly stated that for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections political people will go to the Rajya Sabha.
Briefing media outside Naveen Nivas, Patnaik said, “The Rajya Sabha elections will have to be considered seriously and names of the candidates declared at the appropriate time.” Political people will go to the Rajya Sabha, he added.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had announced that a notification for the election would be issued on March 5 while last date of filing nomination will be March 12. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on March 13. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers will be March 15, while polling and counting will be held on March 23.
As per sources, three Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha are among the total 58 seats which would go to poll on March 23. Elections to these three seats in Odisha have been necessitated as tenure of Dilip Tirkey, AU Singhdeo and AV Swami would get over in April this year.
Asked about what he expects of the results of the Bijepur Bypoll, Patnaik said, “I expect our candidate to win with a very handsome margin.”
On his meeting with President Ram Nath Kovind, Patnaik stated,” Yesterday I met the President in New Delhi to invite him to come to inaugurate Anand Bhavan in Cuttack, a school and museum in memory of Biju Babu and the President has agreed to come either on the 17th or 18th of March.”