BJD candidates Debashish Samantaray and Subhasish Khuntia on Tuesday filed their nomination papers for the upcoming elections to the Rajya Sabha from Odisha.
Samantaray and Khuntia submitted the nomination papers to Returning Officer of the Odisha Legislative Assembly Abanikant Patnaik in the presence of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik and several leaders of the party.
Naveen Patnaik and MLA Manohar Randhari were the proposers for Subhasish Khuntia and Debashish Samantaray, respectively.
The BJD was yet to declare its candidate for a third Rajya Sabha seat. The party has the requisite strength in the Assembly to win all three seats.
The polling will be held on February 27 between 9 am and 4 pm. The counting of votes will be conducted on the very day at 5 pm.
Notably, three Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Amar Patnaik and Prashant Nanda, are scheduled to retire from the Upper House of the Parliament in April this year.