BJP announces 112 candidates for Assembly polls

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday re-nominated 21 of its 22 sitting MLAs in Odisha while announcing the list of candidates for 112 of the 147 Assembly constituencies in the State.

The lone legislator who has been denied the BJP ticket was Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra from Brahmagiri in Puri district. Mohapatra’s niece Upasana Mohapatra has got the ticket from Brahmagiri Assembly seat.

There are eight women candidates in the list. They are Sundargarh 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).

As per the list, BJP State president Manmohan Samal will 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. Pujari was denied 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 while 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 contest from his traditional Sambalpur Assembly seat. Similarly, former minister and ex-BJP state president K V Singhdeo will contest 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 Jayadev Assembly segment in Khurda district.

While actor-turned-politician Akash Das Nayak has been given the ticket for 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, son of BJP leader late Bishnu Sethi 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 and 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 name 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,” Majhi told reporters.