Election Commission has issued Notification for election of 4 nos. of Rajya Sabha Seats those are going to be vacated in 2026. Accordingly, five candidates have filed their nomination before the Returning Officer. The poll will be held on 16th March, 2026.
👉18.02.2026 : Press Release of ECI
👉26.02.2026 : Gazette Notification, ECI on schedule of election
👉26.02.2026 : Gazette Notification, ECI on appointment of RO, ARO
👉26.02.2026 : Gazette Notification, CEO, Odisha
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Election Schedule :
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Rajya Sabha seats to be vacated in 2026
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Election Procedure:
- Rajya Sabha members are elected by concerned State MLAs.
- MLAs vote in the Rajya Sabha elections in what is called proportional representation with the single transferable vote (STV) system. Each MLA’s vote is counted only once.
- In this system, MLAs don’t vote for each seat.Instead, the MLAs are given a paper with the names of all candidates. They have to give their order of preference for each candidate, marking 1,2,3… against their names.
- The ballot is open but MLAs have to show their ballots to an authorised agent from their party to prevent practices such as cross-voting. A vote cannot be counted if the ballot is not shown to the agent. Independent MLAs cannot show their ballot to anyone.
- If a qualifying number of voters choose a candidate as their first choice, he or she is elected.
- The remaining votes go to the next candidates, but with a lesser value. So, MLAs also vote for candidates from other parties.
- The candidate that gets rank 1 from an MLA secures a first preference vote. In order to win, a candidate needs a specific number of such first preference votes. This number depends on the strength of the state Assembly and the number of MPs it sends to Rajya Sabha.
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Election Formula
- To win, a candidate should get a required number of votes which is known as quota or preference vote.
- The formula of quota is = [Total number of votes/(Number of Rajya Sabha seats + 1)] + 1.
- Example : In current election for 4 seats of Rajyasabha from Odisha, the quota required to win each candidate = 147/(4+1) + 1 = 30.4
- If atleast 30 MLAs give first preference to a candidate, then he/ she will win.
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Returning Officer, Odisha
Returning Officer : Shri Satyabrata Rout, Secretary, OLA
Assistant Returning Officer : Shri Bidyadhar Majhi, Joint Secretary, OLA
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Contesting Candidates , Odisha
1. Manmohan Samal, BJP
2. Sujeet Kumar, BJP
3. Santrupta Mishra, BJD
4. Datteswar Hota, BJD
5. Dillip Ray, Independent
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Seating members of Rajyasabha, Odisha
