Congress candidate ,3 BJD MLAs win Rajya Sabha polls in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Ending all speculations, Congress candidate and IPL Chairman Ranjib Biswal and three BJD MLAs, including two ministers, won the Rajya Sabha elections in Odisha today.

Congress candidate Ranjib Biswal, who was in the fray for the fourth seat, received 29 votes, while his rival BJD backed Independent candidate Raghunath Mohapatra could secure only 20 votes.

Besides Congress' 27 MLAs, Biswal could secure two more votes while master sculptor Raghunath Mohapatra received additional votes from BJD MLAs, BJP MLAs and some Independent MLAs.

Each candidate required 30 first preference votes to win.

BJD's official candidates A U Singhdeo got 33 votes Kalpataru Das 32 and Sarojini Hembram 31.

While Kalpataru Das is the panchayati raj minister, Sarojini Hembram holds textile portfolio in the Naveen Patnaik ministry. A U Singhdeo is a senior BJD MLA and a former minister.

As the BJD's official candidates got six more votes than required, the party backed Independent candidate Mohapatra secured only 20 votes. The vote of a BJD MLA was rejected because of overwriting on the ballot paper.

Of the 147 MLAs in the Assembly, 146 members voted. BJP's Manoj Pradhan was missing since yesterday.

While Congress MLA Basudev Majhi came in a wheel chair, BJD member Chau Pattnaik was carried in a stretcher.

After a series of marathon meetings at the party state headquarters here, the opposition BJP finally decided to vote in favour of Independent candidate Mohapatra.

However, BJP's suspended MLA Bhimsen Choudhury who defied the party whip and voted according to his choice.

"We have voted in favour of Mohapatra, but the BJD MLAs betrayed the master sculptor though Naveen Patnaik announced to back him," BJP state president K V Singhdeo alleged.

Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Jaydev Jena said "This is a victory against BJD's horse trading and corruption."

While congratulating the winning candidates, Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik said "I am very happy that three BJD candidates have won the Rajya Sabha elections. However, I am very sad that Independent Raghunath Mohapatra lost."