Bhubaneswar, March 16 Polling for four Rajya Sabha seats in Odisha began on Monday, with the opposition BJD accusing the ruling BJP of engaging in "horse trading."
Voting commenced at 9 am and will continue until 4 pm at the assembly complex, where MLAs have begun casting their ballots, an official said.
The voting for the Rajya Sabha elections will be held in the state after a gap of 12 years, as this time, five candidates are contesting for the four seats which will fall vacant on April 2.
Two candidates from the BJP are its state unit president Manmohan Samal, and sitting Rajya Sabha MP Sujeet Kumar. Former Union minister Dilip Ray is also contesting as an Independent and has the support of the saffron party.
The BJD nominees are party leader Santrupt Misra and eminent urologist Dr Datteswar Hota, whom the Congress and the CPI(M) are supporting.
There is a possibility of cross-voting as neither the ruling BJP nor the opposition BJD has the required numbers to win the fourth seat.
In the 147-member Odisha Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs and the support of three Independents, while the BJD has 48 members after the suspension of two of its legislators on January 15. The Congress has 14 MLAs and one member of CPI(M).
According to the Rajya Sabha arithmetic in Odisha, one candidate requires 30 first preference votes to win a seat. As the BJP has the support of 82 members, it will have 22 surplus votes after electing its two candidates.
Similarly, the BJD will have 18 surplus votes after electing its one candidate.
The election is being held as the tenures of four members—Niranjan Bishi and Munna Khan (BJD), and Sujeet Kumar and Mamata Mohanta (BJP), expire on April 2.