Bhubaneswar: Putting full stop on all speculation, the Governing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday announced that Alaka Mohanty, widow of late Kishore Mohanty, is the party candidate for the crucial Brajarajnagar by-poll.
The name of Deepali Das, daughter of Health Minister Naba Kishore Das, was also making the rounds.
However, the BJD, which has set a tradition by nominating a family member, in case of death of any sitting MLA from the party.
The same happened in the case of Bishnu Das and Pradeep Maharathy, Bedprakash Agarwal.
The BJP yesterday named former MLA Radharani Panda as its candidate for the bypoll to the Brajrajnagar Assembly seat in Jharsuguda district.
The Central Election Committee of the BJP has decided to field Ms.Panda from the seat after careful considerations.
Ms.Panda had bagged the seat by defeating BJD candidate Anup Kumar Sai in 2014. She, however, lost to BJD’s Kishore Mohanty by a margin of 11,634 during the 2019 Assembly polls.
However, Congress is yet to name its candidates for the seat. According to sources, the party has zeroed in on senior leader and former Speaker Kishore Patel as its candidate, but the announcement was yet to be made.
Brajrajnagar bypoll was necessitated following BJD’s Kishore Mohanty’s demise last December.
The Election Commission of India has announced May 31, 2022 as the date for the by-election to Brajarajnagar Assembly constituency. Voting will be held from 7 A.M. to 6 P.M.
The last date for filing of nomination papers is on May 11 while scrutiny will be conducted on May 12. The last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is May 17. Counting of votes has been scheduled on June 3.
