Rajya Sabha race heats up in Odisha as Congress extends support to BJD candidate

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday (February 28, 2026) announced two candidates for the Rajya Sabha polls despite having the numbers to ensure victory for only one, a move that turned the contest competitive after the Indian National Congress swiftly extended support to the second nominee. This has possibly upset the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bid to secure three seats from the State.

Santrupt Misra, the former Human Resources head of Aditya Birla Group, who joined BJD just before 2024 Lok Sabha elections and unsuccessfully fought the polls from Cuttack, is the first choice candidate while Dr. Datteswar Hota, noted urologist and first Vice-Chancellor of Odisha Health University, is the “common” candidate.

All parties should support: Patnaik

“For Rajya Sabha elections, our party has decided to give two candidates. First candidate for the third seat would be Dr. Santrupta Mishra, a senior member of our party. The second candidate for the fourth seat is a common candidate – Dr. Datteswar Hota, a renowned doctor from Odisha, first VC of OHU and former principal of SCB Medical College,” said BJD supremo and former Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik while making a formal announcement of the candidates.

“Since he (Dr. Hota) is a common candidate, we appeal to all the parties to support him and send him to Rajya Sabha,” Mr. Patnaik said.

“The BJD president and my MLA colleagues have given me an onerous responsibility of representing the party as nominee for Raya Sabha elections. I am grateful to them for reposing faith in me. I hope we will take the issues of Odisha and Odia people forward and ensure BJD remains strong and come back to power in 2029,” said Mr. Mishra in his reaction.

Similarly, Dr. Hota said, “I will surely utilise the experience whatever I have gained during my long career in public health if given an opportunity to represent Odisha in Rajya Sabha and work towards strengthening health sector.”

There are 10 Rajya Sabha MPs from Odisha — seven from the BJD and three from BJP. The tenure of BJD MPs Niranjan Bishi and Muzibulla Khan, and BJP MPs Mamata Mohanta and Sujeet Kumar, will end on April 2.

In the 147-member Odisha Legislative Assembly, the BJP has 79 MLAs, followed by BJD with 50, the Congress with 14, one member from the CPI(M), and three Independents. The BJP currently enjoys the support of all three Independent MLAs. It is to be noted that BJD’s strength has come down to 48 after it suspended Arvind Mohapatra, Patkura MLA, and Santan Mahakud, Champua MLA, on allegation of anti-party activities.

Going by arithmetic that requires first preference votes from minimum 31 MLAs to ensure victory of a candidate, BJP and BJD can comfortably send two and one candidate respectively to Rajya Sabha. No party has numerical strength to ensure victory of fourth candidate.

Vijay Singh Tomar, in-charge of BJP party affairs for Odisha, was, however, earlier quoted as saying that the party would send three members from Odisha to the Upper House of Parliament.

The possibility of BJP sending its third candidate now appears thin with Congress immediately announcing its support to the common candidate announced by Mr. Patnaik. If the BJD and Congress come together, their numbers would add up to 62.

Congress’ view

“We had made it clear that if BJD announces a common or independent candidate with credible social standing, we would certainly support. Now when Dr. Hota’s name was formally announced, we did not have any hesitation to support him,” said Bhakta Charan Das, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee. The OPCC president said he had also discussed the issue of Rajya Sabha elections with the former Chief Minister.

“Our support to the renowned urologist is ideology-based. The move is aimed at preventing horse-trading,” the Congress leader said.

A political analyst termed the move by Congress appears smart as it was nowhere in the race for a Rajya Sabha seat. By supporting BJD’s common candidate, it would at least prevent BJP from sending a third candidate.