BJP Announces 6 Candidates For Odisha Assembly Polls

The BJP released a list of six candidates for upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha.

The BJP released a list of six candidates for upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha. ( Image Source :PTI )

Odisha Assembly Elections: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday released a list of six candidates for upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha. The saffron party has nominated Shambhunath Rout from Ghasipura, Ashish Patra from Bhograi, Sudhanshu Nayak from Bhandaripokhari. The party has also nominated Umesh Chandra Jena from Bari, Purnachandra Mohapatra from Barabati-Cuttack and Prakash Chandra Ranabijuli from Begunia. 

BJP releases names of six candidates for upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha

Odisha will vote in Assembly elections on 13th May and 20th May pic.twitter.com/f6p5JeezAb

— ANI (@ANI) May 2, 2024

Meanwhile earlier in the day, ruling BJD finalised the list for all the 147 assembly seats in the state. BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the names of three more candidates and changed the nominee in one Vidhan Sabha seat. Among the new nominees, Sabitri Pradhan will contest for Khandapada assembly seat in Nayagarh district, while Sandhyarani Das will represent Korei in Jajpur district.

Sandhyarani Das is the mother of BJD’s organisational secretary and Lok Sabha candidate Pranab Prakash Das and wife of late Ashok Das, former Janata Dal president. Turncoat sitting MLA Sukant Nayak, who joined BJD on March 31 after resigning from the BJP, has been nominated for Nilgiri assembly segment.

The BJD has replaced its candidate in Deogarh assembly seat, with Romanch Ranjan Biswal taking the place of Bamanda ‘Rani’ Arundhati Devi, the wife of erstwhile Deogarh king and BJP’s Sambalpur MP Nitesh Ganga Dev.

Odisha is set to go to polls on May 13 and May 20. Patnaik on Thursday filed his nomination papers from Kantabanji assembly segment under Bolangir parliamentary constituency in the state's western region. This comes two days after he filed his papers from his traditional Hinjili seat in Ganjam district.

After reaching Tushra Airstrip, Patnaik led a procession to the sub-collector’s office at Titlagarh and filed papers in the presence of BJD leader and his schoolmate AU Singhdeo and party leader V K Pandian. The Odisha CM chose Kantabanji as the second seat as it is strategically located and connected to three Lok Sabha seats such as Kalahandi, Bolangir, and Bargarh. These three LS seats were won by the opposition BJP in the 2019 elections.