Indus Valley Times

Till now, party has announced 99 assembly and 20 Lok Sabha seats

By Nalini Sahu

Bhubaneswar, April 3 : Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday released the second list of candidates for assembly and third list of candidates for Lok Sabha seats.

As many as 27 candidates figure in the second list of assembly candidates. The third list of Lok Sabha candidates contains five names. With this, the total number of BJD candidates declared so far for assembly polls has gone up to 99. Similarly, the total number of candidates declared for Lok Sabha polls reached 20.

Balasore is now the only left out Lok Sabha seat to have a BJD candidate to lock horns with BJP’s Pratap Sarangi.

A close look at the BJD’s assembly candidates’ list reflects that the party has retained most of the sitting members while it has changed faces at certain seats like Tirtol and Athamalik.

 In Tirtol, sitting MLA Bijay Shankar Das has been replaced by Ramakant Bhoi while former bureaucrat Nalinikant Pradhan has been fielded in place of party legislator Ramesh Chandra Sai.

The party has retained Dipali Das, the lawmaker from Jharsuguda, and Brajarajnagar MLA Alaka Mohanty, who had entered into the Odisha Legislative Assembly, through by-elections.

The lists reflect turncoats successfully getting tickets. Surendra Singh Bhoi and Adhiraj Panigrahi who recently quit Congress have been fielded respectively as Bolangir Lok Sabha candidate and nominee for Khariar assembly seat. Brugu Buxipatra, a senior BJP leader who quit the party on Wednesday morning, has got the ticket to contest from Berhampur Lok Sabha constituency.

The party denied ticket to senior leader Pratap Jena who represents Mahanga in Odisha Legislative Assembly.  Instead, his son Ankit Pratap Jena has been fielded from that seat.

Soro’s MLA Parshuram Dhada, party’s spokesperson, has been replaced by Madhav Dhada. Soon after the lists were released by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Dhada resigned from the BJD in protest.

Of the three assembly seats in capital city Bhubaneswar, the party announced candidates for two seats – Ashok Panda from Ekamra and Sushant Rout from Bhubaneswar North.

Odisha will go to Lok Sabha and assembly polls simultaneously. Elections will be held in the state in four phases.

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Here is the list of Assembly Candidates:

Brajarajnagar- Alaka Mohanty

Jharsuguda- Dipali Das

Talsara- Binay Kumar Toppo

Sundargarh- Jogesh Singh

Rajgangpur- Anil Barwa

Bonai- Bhimsen Choudhury

Jashipur- Chakradhar Hembrum

Udala- Srinath Soren

Baripada- Sananda Marandi

Badasahi- Anusaya Patra’

Morada- Pritinanda Kanungo

Soro- Madhav Dhada

Athmalik- Nalinikant Pradhan

Birmaharajpur- Padmanabh Behera

Khariar- Adhiraj Panigarhi

Phulbani- Jayshree Kanhar

Mahanga- Ankit Pratap Jena

Tirtol- Ramakant Bhoi

Jagatsinghpur- Prashant Muduli

Bhubaneswar (North)- Sushant Kumar Rout

Here is a list of Lok Sabha Candidates:

Bolangir- Surendra Singh Bhoi

Bhadrak- Manjulata Mandal

Bargarh- Parinita Mishra

Berhampur- Bhrugu Baxipatra

Keonjhar- Dharurjay Sidhu