Amit Shah holds meeting with Odisha's BJP MLAs, Rajya Sabha poll candidates

Bhubaneswar, Mar 7 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting with Odisha's BJP MLAs and Rajya Sabha poll candidates ahead of the March 16 elections to the Upper House of Parliament.

Shah, who undertook a day-long visit to Odisha on Friday and attended marathon official programmes, visited the BJP's state headquarters here and held a crucial meeting with the chief minister, MLAs, MPs, ministers and three candidates in the fray.

While the party has named Odisha BJP chief Manmohan Samal and MP Sujeet Kumar as its candidates, it backed former Union minister Dilip Ray, who is contesting as an Independent nominee.

Though Odisha BJP president Manmohan Samal said that Shah discussed "organisational matters", party MP from Bargarh, Pradip Purohit, said that there was a discussion on Rajya Sabha elections as well.

"The MLAs, who will vote in the March 16 elections, were told to ensure that all three candidates won the polls," he said.

BJP spokesperson Surath Biswal said it was obvious that Shah discussed the Rajya Sabha polls.

"He is the biggest poll strategist of our party...He suggested how to win the Rajya Sabha polls," Biswal said.

The Rajya Sabha elections will be held for four seats from Odisha as the tenure of Niranjan Bishi and Munna Khan (BJD), and Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mohanta (BJP) expires on April 2.

According to the Rajya Sabha arithmetic in Odisha, one candidate needs at least 30 first-preference votes to win a seat.

In the current Odisha Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independents, totalling 82, which is eight short of the number required for electing three MPs. The opposition BJD has 48 MLAs, after two of its members were suspended last month. After electing one MP, it will have a surplus of 18 first-preference votes but will require another 12 to bag the second seat. The Congress has 14 MLAs, and the CPI(M) has one.

As neither the BJP nor the BJD would be able to win the fourth seat on their own, BJD president Naveen Patnaik fielded a "common" candidate, urologist Dr Datteswar Hota, and appealed to all parties to vote for him.

The Congress and the CPI(M) have supported Hota, while the BJP backed Dilip Ray.

Meanwhile, according to the Odisha Assembly secretariat, the nomination papers of all five candidates for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha were found valid during scrutiny on Friday. PTI AAM ACD BDC