BJD announced candidates for Nine more Lok Sabha seats
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats. The State’s ruling party has denied tickets to six of its sitting MPs.
The party has fielded former Mumbai Police Commissioner Arup Patnaik from Bhubaneswar parliamentary constituency replacing its sitting and five-time MP Prasanna Kumar Patasani. The party announced Patasani will be sent to Rajya Sabha. From Bhubaneswar seat, Arup Patnaik will contest against BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi and Congress backed CPI (M) nominee Janardan Pati.
The BJD has re-nominated its sitting MP Rabindra Jena from Balasore Lok Sabha seat in the upcoming election.
The Party has dropped its sitting MP Ramchandra Hansda Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat and doctor-turned-politician Debasis Marandi will make his electoral debut as the ruling party has decided to field Marandi from from the constituency.
Sarmistha Sethi is the candidate from Jajpur Lok Sabha constituency. The party denied ticket to its sitting MP Rita Tarai from the seat.
The Naveen Patnaik-led party has fielded Ollywood actor-turned-politician Anubhav Mohanty from Kendrapara constituency from where BJP leader and former BJD MP Baijayant Panda was elected to Lok Sabha three times. This time, Anubhav, now a Rajya Sabha MP, will take on Baijayant in the forthcoming polls.
In a similar move, Naveen Patnaik has dropped its sitting Bhadrak MP Arjun Charan Sethi this time and given the ticket to newbie Manjulata Mandal instead.
Nalinikanta Pradhan has recently joined the BJD after taking voluntary retirement and he is the party candidate from Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency. The party dropped its sitting MP Nagendra Kumar Pradhan.
Similarly, the party denied ticket to its sitting MP from Jagatsinghpur Kulamani Samal and fielded Rajashri Mallick as its candidate for the upcoming polls.
The BJD, however, retained its sitting Puri MP Pinaki Mishra and re-nominated him from the same constituency. Mishra will face BJP National Spokesperson Sambit Patra in the forthcoming election.
Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly constituencies, which will face simultaneous polls in four phases from April 11.
The following candidates have been given ticket to contest the Loksabha Election:
Puri : Shri Pinaki Mishra
Bhubaneswar : Shri Arup Mohan Patnaik
Jajpur : Smt Sarmistha Sethi
Kendrapada : Shri Anubhav Mohanty
Jagatsinghpur : Dr. Rajashree Mallick
Sambalpur : Shri Nalini Kanta Pradhan
Balasore : Shri Rabindra Kumar Jena
Bhadrak : Smt Manjulata Mandal
Mayurbhanj : Dr. Debasish Marandi
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