The Congress party today announced the first list of candidates for eight Lok Sabha and 47 Assembly seats in Odisha. It has left two MLA seats for CPI (M) and JMM.
The party has given tickets to more than one person of one family. It has nominated Campaign Committee Chairman of the party, Bhakta Charan Das from the Narla MLA seat while his son Sagar Charan Das has been fielded for the Bhawanipatna assembly segment.
Similarly, former MLA Bhujabal Majhi has been nominated from the Nabarangpur parliamentary constituency. Bhujabal’s daughter Lipika has been given ticket to contest for Dabugam MLA segment.
However, the party has not nominated any one from the Gamang family or former MP from Koraput Jayaram Pangi who had returned to the party fold recently.
Former chief minister Giridhar Gamang, his wife and former MP Hema Gamang and son Sishir Gamang had returned to the Congress in January this year.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) President Sarat Pattanayak who contested from Nuapada Assembly seat and former chief secretary and chairman of the election coordination committee Bijay Patnaik has been fielded from the Paralakhemundi seat.
Sitting MLAs of the party, Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Santosh Singh Saluja and Ramesh Jena have been re-nominated by the party from Jeypore, Kantabanji and Sanakhemundi segments which they represented in the outgoing assembly.
The party has fielded Samarendra Mishra, son of veteran Congress leader Narasingha Mishra from Balangir.
The list also includes former Indian hockey player Prabodh Tirkey who will contest assembly polls from Talsara while Balabhadra Mahi who had resigned from BJD and joined the party recently has been given ticket for Lanjigarh assembly seat.
Former MLA Ramachandra Kadam will enter the fray from Pattangi seat.
The party has repeated the lone Lok Sabha member from the Saptagiri Ulaka seat. Former MP Sanjay Bhoi who returned to the party recently has been fielded from Bargarh Lok Sabha seat while Janardhan Dehury who had contested the 2019 assembly election as an independent from Bonai Assembly seat has been given ticket from the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat.
Cinestar Manoj Mishra, who recently joined the Congress, will fight from Balangir Lok Sabha seat in his maiden electoral battle.
The party has left the Bonai and Biramitrapur assembly seats to the CPI (M) and JMM, respectively
The party has announced candidates for Lok Sabha seats except Aska which will go to polls in the first two phases on May 13 and May 20.