Bhubaneswar: It is against Santosh Khatua vs Sukanta Nayak in Nilgiri Assembly constituency in Balasore district. However, this time, the leaders have changed their parties. Sukanta Kumar Nayak is the Governing BJD nominee while Opposition BJP today nominated Shri Khatua.
In the 2019 election, Shri Nayak left BJD after the party had fielded Khatua from the Assembly seat. He joined the BJP and became the MLA while Shri Khatua narrowly missed the seat with mealy 2500 votes.
This time, Shri Nayak, a two-time MLA, returned to the BJD though the BJP was ready to re-nominate him. So, to checkmate Shri Nayak, the BJP has picked up Shri Khatua for the Nilgiri battle. Shri Khatua has already resigned from the regional party as the party denied him ticket.
Interestingly, Santosh Khatua has not yet formally joined the BJP. Shri Khatua said he is visiting Bhubaneswar along with his supporters now. He would join the BJP this afternoon.
With the announcement of a candidate for Nilgiri, the BJP has completed filing of candidates for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats in Odisha. The BJD has also nominated candidates all seats in the State while Congress has yet to name its fighter for the only Nilgiri Assembly seat.