Bhubaneswar: For the first time being sworn-in as Union Minister, senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan is going to face electoral battle during the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP, which has announced its candidates for 18 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats of Odisha, has nominated Shri Pradhan from Sambalpur, the nerve center of Western Odisha.
Replacing the sitting MP Nitesh Ganga Deb, the party has fielded Union Education Minister Shri Pradhan from Sambalpur seat while Union Minister and Mayurbhanj MP Bisweswar Tudu has been dropped.
BJP has fielded sitting MLA of Rairangpur, Naba Charan Majhi as candidate for the tribal dominated Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency, the home district of President Droupadi Murmu.
Surprisingly, the saffron party fielded Shri Majhi replacing Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu who had won the Mayurbhanj seat in the 2019 election.
The party has also dropped three sitting MPs including Shri Ganga Deb. The other two MPs are Bargarh MP Suresh Pujari and Kalahandi MP Basanta Panda.
The saffron party has nominated former MLA Pradeep Purohit from Bargarh while Malvika Keshari Deo has been fielded from Kalahandi seat.
Similarly, the BJP has re-nominated Bolangir MP Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, former Union Minister Pratap Sarangi, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, former Union Minister and Sundergarh MP Jual Oram from same seat.
Similarly, the party has re-nominated National Vice-President Baijayanta Panda from Kendrapara, party’s National Spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri, Ananta Nayak from Keonjhar, former MP Bibhu Prasad Tarai from Jagatsinghpur seat, Balabhadra Majhi from Nabarangpur, Rudra Narayan Pani from Dhenkanal and Anita Subhadarshani from Aska constituencies.
Among new entrant to the party, MLA Pradeep Panigrahi has been given party ticket for Berhampur seat.
Abhimanyu Sethi, son of former Union Minister Arjun Sethi, has been allotted ticket for Bhadrak.