Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday urged the Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to invalidate two votes cast by BJP MLAs during the March 16 Rajya Sabha elections and declare united Opposition candidate Datteswar Hota elected to the fourth Rajya Sabha seat from Odisha.
A BJD delegation led by deputy leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly Prasanna Acharya met Odisha CEO R S Gopalan in Bhubaneswar and submitted a detailed memorandum outlining the party’s objections and legal arguments.
The meeting comes after the Election Commission of India (ECI) granted the BJD an opportunity to present its stand before the Odisha CEO.
In its memorandum, the BJD alleged that two BJP MLAs — Upasana Mohapatra and Purna Chandra Sethi — were illegally issued second ballot papers during polling, allegedly in violation of established election rules.
Both MLAs had voted in favour of BJP-backed Independent candidate Dilip Ray, who was eventually declared elected to the fourth Rajya Sabha seat. While both Dilip Ray and Datteswar Hota secured 23 first-preference votes each, Ray emerged victorious on the basis of second-preference votes.
The BJD claimed that despite raising objections during the polling process, the two votes were treated as valid, ultimately influencing the outcome in favour of Dilip Ray.
“After rejection of the two votes cast by BJP Legislature Party MLAs, Dilip Ray falls below united Opposition candidate Datteswar Hota in terms of first-preference votes. Therefore, we demand that Datteswar Hota be declared elected by the Election Commission of India,” the party stated in its memorandum.
Describing the incident as a “grave violation” of election rules, the BJD alleged that the issuance of second ballot papers to the two BJP MLAs during the Rajya Sabha elections was “illegal”.
“The present case is not merely one of procedural impropriety. It is a case where statutory objections were contemporaneously recorded by every category of authorised electoral participant available under the election framework itself – polling agents, election agents, authorised party agents, counting agents, candidates, and parliamentary representatives – yet no satisfactory statutory explanation or action has been forthcoming despite repeated escalation,” the BJD said.
The BJD also said that this matter is capable of objective verification through contemporaneous documentary, electronic, photographic, audio, and video evidence forming part of the election record itself. “The issue, therefore, concerns not political interpretation, but institutional examination of statutory compliance within a constitutionally regulated election process,” it said.
The delegation also urged the CEO to disclose the action taken on complaints submitted by the BJD on the polling day, March 16, 2026, as well as on the email sent by BJD President Naveen Patnaik on March 18, 2026.
The party further requested the Election Commission of India to initiate all consequential statutory and legal action warranted under the law.