Bhubaneswar, Mar 27 (UNI) BJD President Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced the list of party candidates for nine Lok Sabha and 72 Assembly seats in Odisha for the upcoming elections.
The ruling BJD is the state's first political party to announce the party candidates' names for Assembly seats. Odisha will hold simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha election.
Odisha will go to the polls in four phases for its 147 Assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.
The principal Opposition party BJP in the state has already announced the names of party candidates for 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. It is yet to release the names of candidates for Assembly seats.
On the other hand, the opposition Congress is yet to announce the candidates for the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats.
The BJD fielded former Indian Hockey team captain Dillip Tirkey for the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat to take on former Union minister and sitting BJP MP Juel Oram.
The party’s organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das will for the first time vie for Lok Sabha elections as he has been nominated for the Sambalpur parliamentary seat where the BJP earlier announced the candidature of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The candidates of the other seven Lok Sabha seats announced by BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik include Lambodar Nial (Kalahandi ), Sudam Marndi( Mayurbhanj), Ansuman Mohanty ( Kendrapara), Pradeep Majhi( Nabarangpur), Kausalya Hikaka (Koraput) and Ranjita Sahu( Aska).
Manmath Routray, the son of veteran Congress leader and sitting MLA Suresh Chandra Routray, who joined the BJD on Wednesday. was named as party candidate for the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will this time also contest from Hinjili Assembly seat, from where he has been elected consecutively for the fifth time since the 2000 Assembly elections.
Out of the 72 Assembly seats announced on Wednesday, a majority of the sitting MLA of the party has been re-nominated.
At least thirteen members of the council of ministers of the Naveen Patnaik government have been re-nominated to contest the Assembly elections. They are Pratap Dev, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Jagannath Saraka, Prafulla Mallick, Rita Sahu, Aswani Patra, Pritiranjan Gharai, Niranjan Pujari, Tukuni Sahu, Rajendra Dholkia, Pradeep Kumar Amat, Ranendra Pratap Swain and Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. UNI DP SSP