Rajya Sabha election: BJP queers pitch for Oppn in Odisha; suspense over NDA candidate in three other states continues

New Delhi: The entry of businessman-politician Dilip Ray as an independent candidate for Rajya Sabha election with BJP support has queered the pitch in Odisha while suspense over the NDA fielding an extra candidate in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra to corner the Opposition continued.

The BJP has offered support to the UPPL in Assam for the third seat, which the Opposition could win if its MLAs join hands, while the NDA has kept its plans so far under wraps in Bihar and Maharashtra.

In Odisha, four seats are going to polls and given the numbers in Assembly, BJP can win two seats, which has announced the candidature of Odisha BJP chief Manmohan Samal and sitting MP Sujeet Kumar and BJD could bag one, which has been allotted to Dr Santrupt Misra, a close aide of party chief Naveen Patnaik.

With an aim to keep BJP away from snatching the fourth seat, BJD, Congress and CPI(M) have joined hands and decided to support a common candidate Dr Datteswar Hota. While BJD does not have numbers on its own to get the fourth seat, the entry of Congress and CPI(M) have assured numbers on its side at least on papers.

With the entry of Ray, the BJP is hoping to snatch the seat from the Opposition as the former union minister was a former BJD member who was close to Biju Patnaik and Naveen Patnaik. Ray was a minister in Biju Patnaik-led state government and a union minister in both HD Deve Gowda and AB Vajpayee governments.

The Mayfair hotel group head, Ray, who was convicted in a coal scam case in 2020 but a High Court stayed it in 2024, also was in the forefront to form the BJD but soon fell out of favour of Naveen Patnaik. In 2002, he became a Rajya Sabha MP as an independent by prompting around a dozen BJD voters to cross-vote.

The BJP is hoping that Ray’s networking skills would help get through and strike a blow to the new found bonhomie between BJD and Congress.

In the 147-member Assembly, BJP has 79 MLAs besides the support of three independents, BJD 50, including two who have been suspended, Congress 14 and CPI(M) 1. One candidate would need 31 first preference votes to win. Even if BJP transfers its surplus votes, Ray will be short of 11 votes.

In Assam, Congress will be in a difficult situation, as it would have to seek AIUDF’s support to get a candidate win, amid apprehension that such a scenario would lead to an aggressive BJP campaign against it. In Bihar too, the Opposition would need the support of five AIMIM and one BSP MLAs support even as RJD has made it clear that it would contest the polls.