Bhubaneswar: The process of filing of nomination for the December 20 byelections to six Rajya Sabha seats, including one from Odisha, began on Tuesday after the formal notification was issued.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had last week announced the schedule for the byelections to the six vacant Rajya Sabha seats to be held on December 20.
While the notification for the bypoll was issued on Tuesday, the last date for filing of nomination papers will be December 10. Scrutiny of nominations will be done on December 11. The last date for withdrawal of candidature will be December 13. The bypoll will be conducted between 9 am and 4 pm on December 20. Counting of votes will be done at 5 pm the same day.
Notably, the seat in Odisha fell vacant after Sujeet Kumar resigned from the Upper House of Parliament and joined the BJP on September 6, 2024, shortly after being expelled by BJD for “anti-party” activities.
He was elected to Rajya Sabha on April 3, 2020, and his term would have ended on April 2, 2026. A native of Kalahandi district, Sujeet was once perceived to be very close to BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s close aide V K Pandian. He was the second BJD MP to have resigned from the Rajya Sabha, after Kudumi community leader Mamata Mohanta, who was later was re-elected to the Rajya Sabha as a BJP nominee. These resignations diminished BJD’s strength in the upper house to seven members, while the party currently has no representation in the Lok Sabha.
This vacant seat will also go to BJP given its numerical strength of 78 MLAs in 147-member Vidhan Sabha in Odisha.
