Bhubaneswar: Governing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today announced names of candidates for 27 Assembly and 5 MP seats.
So far, the party has announced 99 MLA candidates and 20 MP nominees. Only one Lok Sabha candidate for Balasore has not been announced by the BJD.
In its fresh list, the BJD has dropped seven sitting MLAs—Sorada MLA Raj Kishore Das, Soro MLA Parshuram Dhada, Athmalik MLA Ramesh Chandra Sai, Phulbani MLA Angada Kanhar, Mahanga MLA Pratap Jena, Tirtol MLA Bijay Shankar Das and Potangi MLA Pritam Padhi.
Similarly, two sitting MPs Chandra Sekhar Sahu (Berhampur) and Chandrani Murmu (Keonjhar) were also denied tickets by the party.
The party has nominated Raj Kishore Das’s wife Pritinanda Kanungo for Morada while Ankit, son of MLA Pratap Jena has filed for Mahanga and Anil Barba, son of Mangala Kishan named for Rajgangpur MLA seat.
In Athmallik, the party has nominated former bureaucrat Nalini Kanta Pradhan.
The party has given tickets to newly joined leaders including Adhiraj Panigrahi for Khariar MLA seat, Surendra Singh Bhoi for Bolangir MP seat, Parinita Mishra for Bargarh MP segment, and Bhrugu Baxipatra for Berhampur MP seat.
Though Shri Baxipatra had lost to Shri Sahu in the 2019 elections, he got an impressive 3.49 lakh votes. He quit BJP after the party nominated Gopalpur MLA Pradeep Panigrahi, who was expelled from BJD and joined the saffron camp in February, from Berhampur parliamentary constituency.
Shri Bhoi, a three-time Congress MLA and former Minister, resigned from the primary membership of the party after 38 years and joined the ruling BJD on March 29. He was elected MLA from Saintala twice in 1995 and 2000 and from Titilagarh in 2009.
Shri Bhoi has replaced Kalikesh Singhdeo, who had unsuccessfully contested from the parliamentary constituency in 2019 after winning the seat in 2014. The party has fielded Kalikesh from the Balangir assembly seat this time.
Though there were talks that the regional party might field senior leader Prasanna Acharya, who was discharged from hospital on Tuesday after suffering critical injuries in a car crash last month, from Bargarh, the party picked Parineeta Mishra, the wife of Sushant Mishra who defected from BJP and joined BJD.
Former MLA Dhanurjay Siddu has been given the ticket for Keonjhar LS seat. He had won from Champua Assembly seat in 2004 on Congress ticket. He, however, faced defeat in Telkoi in 2014 elections as Congress candidate and again in 2019 when he fought from the BJP camp. Shri Siddu joined the BJD in December 2021.
Meanwhile, expressing dissatisfaction over denial of ticket, Soro MLA Parshuram Dhada resigned from the BJD. Shri Dhada said he will contest the election either from any other party or independently.