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Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India (ECI) today issued notification for bypolls to three Rajya Sabha seats of Odisha.
Here are the key dates of the bye-elections:
| Sl.No. | Events | Dates and Days |
| 1. | Issue of Notifications | 18th June, 2019 (Tuesday) |
| 2. | Last Date of making nominations | 25th June, 2019 (Tuesday) |
| 3. | Scrutiny of nominations | 26th June, 2019 (Wednesday) |
| 4. | Last date for withdrawal of candidatures | 28th June, 2019 (Friday) |
| 5. | Date of Poll | 05th July, 2019 (Friday) |
| 6. | Hours of Poll | 9:00a.m.- 4:00 p.m. |
| 7. | Counting of Votes | 05th July, 2019 (Friday) at 5.00 p.m. |
| 8. | Date before which election shall be completed | 09th July, 2019 (Tuesday) |
The three seats which fell vacant were held by Achyutananda Samanta, Pratap Keshari Deb and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik. While Samanta was elected from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, Deb and Patnaik won from Aul and Khandapada Assembly segments in the recently held elections.
Samanta and Patnaik's term in the Upper House was to end in April, 2024 while Deb's term in the Rajya Sabha was till July, 2022.
Going by the number of MLAs in the state Assembly, political parties other than the BJD do not have a chance in the Rajya Sabha polls. Out of 147 members in the House, the BJD has 112 MLAs.
Since each candidate for three vacant Rajya Sabha seats will require support of 38 MLAs to win, it is certain that BJD would retain all the three seats.
