BJD Declares Candidates For 72 Assembly, 15 Lok Sabha Seats In Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Wednesday released its first list of candidates for 15 Lok Sabha and 72 assembly constituencies. Among the high-profile nominees is chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who has been renominated from Hinjili assembly seat, seeking a record sixth term in office. 

As compared to 2019, BJD has this time changed 10 of the 15 Lok Sabha candidates. 

BJD denied tickets to Pinaki Mishra (Puri), Anubhav Mohanty (Kendrapada), Mahesh Sahoo (Dhenkanal) and Pramila Bisoyi (Aska). Nabarangpur MP Ramesh Majhi has been given a ticket to fight from Jharigram assembly seat. 

Santrupt Mishra, former HR head of Aditya Birla Group, has been fielded in Cuttack Parliamentary seat. Pranab Prakash Das, BJD secretary (organization) has been pitted against Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan of BJP in Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, setting the stage for a high-octane political battle in the western Odisha constituency. 

Hours after joining BJD, Manmath Routray, who is the son of Congress MLA Suresh Routray, bagged a ticket for Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat. Name of Shreemayi Mishra had been doing the rounds as the party’s possible candidate in Bhubaneswar for quite some time. 

Dilip Tirkey has been nominated for Sundargarh LS seat, Sudam Marndi (Mayurbhanj), Anshuman Mohanty (Kendrapada), Pradeep Majhi (Nabarangpur), Koushalya Hikaka (Koraput), Ranjita Sahu (Aska), Lamodar Nihar (Kalahandi), Arup Patnaik (Puri), Abinash Samal (Dhenkanal), Rajashree Mallik (Jagatsinghpur), Achyuta Samanta (Kandhamal) and Sarmistha Sethi has been renominated from Jajpur Lok Sabha seat. 

BJD’s first list of candidates announced for 72 assembly seats has 13 debutants, including 7 women. A total of 12 women are in the first list for assembly seats. 

While BJD changed candidates for 22 seats ostensibly to beat anti-incumbency, at least seven MLAs, including Padmini Dian (Kotpad), Nityananda Sahoo (Basta) and Sabitri Agarwalla (Patkura), were denied tickets. Of the seven MLAs dropped this time, the family members of three have bagged the tickets. Sitting MLAs of Bhadrak and Bhandaripokhari, and Brahmagiri and Satyabadi have been swapped. 

Going ahead with dynasty politics, senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra’s son Aravind (Patkura), BJD ex-MLA late Maheswar Mohanty’s son Sunil (Puri), former assembly speaker late Surjya Narayan Patro’s son Biplab (Digapahandi), MLA Usha Devi’s son Chinmayananda Srirup Deb (Chikiti), MLA Sadasiva Pradhani’s wife Kaushalya (Nabarangpur), MLA Purna Chandra Swain’s wife Sanghamitra (Suruda), former BJD MLA Subash Gond’s wife Nabina Nayak (Umerkote) and former BJD MLA Jogendra Behera’s son Nihar (Loisingha) are all set to make debut in electoral politics. 

Besides, Lalita Naik, wife of BJD leader Dushmant Naik, who had unsuccessfully contested from Bhawanipatna assembly constituency in 2019 has been picked by the ruling party from the same seat this time. This is the first time she will contest assembly polls. 

Subhasini Jena, BJD women’s wing’s working president and wife of former BJD MP Rabindra Jena, will fight her maiden election from Basta constituency in the upcoming election by replacing incumbent MLA Nityananda, who has been denied a ticket. 

Anusaya Majhi will also debut from Rayagada assembly seat for the BJD this time. BJD’s Lal Bihari Himirika had lost the seat to independent candidate Makaranda Muduli in 2019. Doctor Sanjay Das will contest from Bhandaripokhari for the first time. 

Former chairperson of Dasarathpur block, Sujata Sahu, will try her luck for the first time from Jajpur assembly constituency. BJD heavyweight and organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das had been holding the Jajpur seat since 2009. The party picked Sujata for Jajpur after Pranab was nominated from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat. 

The first list also included two candidates — Srikant Sahu (Polasara) and Prafulla Samal (Bhadrak) — who were mired in controversy recently. In May last year, Sahu was removed as labour minister after a woman BJD worker made ‘sexual harassment’ allegations against Sahu, who has denied the charges. Samal, sitting MLA from Bhandaripokhari and now shifted to Bhadrak, was recently quizzed by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with an alleged scam in a private college in Bhadrak.