Overview
- Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a closed-door meeting in Bhubaneswar with the chief minister, MLAs, MPs, ministers and the three contenders to sharpen the party’s Rajya Sabha strategy.
- BJP has nominated Manmohan Samal and Sujeet Kumar and is backing Independent Dilip Ray, with MLAs told to secure victories for all three candidates.
- The Odisha Assembly secretariat confirmed that all five nomination papers for the four seats were found valid during scrutiny.
- About 30 first-preference votes are needed per seat; BJP’s working strength is 82, leaving it eight short of electing three MPs outright, while BJD has 48 MLAs.
- BJD has fielded Dr. Datteswar Hota as a common candidate with Congress and CPI(M) support, setting up a contest to be settled by the March 16 single transferable vote as current terms expire April 2.