Bhubaneswar: With the approaching dates for filing nominations for twin elections in Odisha, the BJP today announced candidates for 112 out of 147 MLA segments of the State.
The party has re-nominated 21 out of 22 sitting MLAs and given tickets to five leaders who recently joined the party after leaving BJD.
The lone legislator who has been denied the BJP ticket was Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra from Brahmagiri in Puri district. Shri Mohapatra’s niece Upasana Mohapatra has got the ticket from the Brahmagiri Assembly seat.
There are eight women candidates in the list. They are Sundergarh MLA Kusum Tete, Sebati Nayak (Bonai), Babita Mallick (Binjharpur), Smrutirekha Pahi (Dharmasala), Kalpana Kumar Khara (Baliguda), Pravati Parida (Nimapara), Upasana Mohapatra (Brahmagiri) and Pratushya Rajeswari Singh (Nayagarh).
BJP State President Manmohan Samal will again contest from Chandbali Assembly segment in Bhadrak district while senior party leader and sitting MP from Bargarh Suresh Pujari will contest from Brajarajnagar Assembly seat. Shri Pujari was denied the party ticket for contesting the Lok Sabha polls this time.
The BJP has fielded Sisir Mishra against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from Hinjili Assembly constituency. Speaking to the media, Sisir said that the saffron party has been gaining strength in the constituency. The BJP had given BJD a tough fight in municipality elections, having won 5200 votes against the ruling party’s 6400, and also Zilla Parishad elections,” he said.
Former BJD MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh will contest against former minister and sitting MLA Arun Kumar Sahoo in Nayagarh Assembly seat.
Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly Jaynarayan Mishra will again fight from his traditional Sambalpur MLA seat. Similarly, former Minister and ex-BJP State President KV Singhdeo has been re-nominated from Patnagarh assembly seat in Bolangir district. His wife Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo is BJP candidate for the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat.
Five turncoats from BJD, Arabinda Dhali, Akash Das Nayak, Siddhant Mohapatra, Purna Chandra Sethi and Priyadarshi Mishra were given BJP tickets. Arabinda Dhali will fight from the Jayadev Assembly segment in Khurda district.
While actor-turned-politician Akash Das Nayak has been given the ticket for his own Korei Assembly segment in Jajpur district, former BJD MLA Priyadarshi Mishra will fight the polls from Bhubaneswar North seat.
Former MLA Purna Chandra Sethi, who quit BJD and joined the BJP on March 26, will contest from Khallikote assembly seat. He had won two consecutive elections from the constituency in 2009 and 2014 but was denied a ticket in 2019.
While the saffron party’s youth leader Tankadhar Tripathy will fight the Assembly polls from Jharsuguda, MLA Kusum Tete will contest from Sundargarh Assembly seat and Biswaranjan Badajena from Jatni.
Jagannath Pradhan has been fielded from Bhubaneswar Central, Babu Singh from Bhubaneswar Ekamra and Prithiviraj Harichandan from Chilika Assembly seat.
The party also selected sitting MLA Suryabanshi Suraj from Dhamnagar Assembly seat, Padmalochan Panda from Simulia, Rajendra Das from Soro, Gobinda Chandra Das from Remuna, Manas Kumar Dutta from Balasore, Braja Pradhan from Jaleswar, Irasis Acharya from Bhatli.
Senior BJP leader Mohan Majhi ridiculed the ruling BJD over its recent statement that the saffron party was unable to find candidates for all the 147 assembly seats.
“Now, the BJP has announced the names of 112 candidates, which is 40 more than the BJD’s announced candidates of 72. We have strong candidates in all the Assembly and Lok sabha seats,” Shri Majhi told reporters.
The Election Commission recently announced that the elections in Odisha will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections and will be completed in four phases starting from May 13, with the final phase on June 1. The counting of votes will be done on June 4.
In the 2019 polls, the ruling BJD had secured a significant victory with 112 seats, while BJP won 23 seats in 2019 and the Congress went from 16 to 9 seats in 2019.
