BJD announces candidates for 5 LS, 27 Assembly seats in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today announced its third list of five candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in Odisha.

The party also announced its second list of 27 candidates for 2024 Assembly polls in the state.

The Naveen Patnaik-led party had announced the first list of candidates for 9 Lok Sabha seats and 72 Assembly seats on March 27.

The party had also issued the second list of 6 candidates for 2024 Lok Sabha polls in the state on the same day.

The BJD has so far announced its candidates for 20 Lok Sabha seats of the total 21 and 99 Assembly seats of the total 147 in the state. The party is yet to announce its candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat.

The ruling party has picked former minister Surendra Singh Bhoi as its candidate for Balangir Lok Sabha seat. Bhoi had joined the BJD after quitting the Congress party a few days ago.

Similarly, Bhrugu Baxipatra, who joined the BJD today after resigning from the BJP, got the nomination to fight the Lok Sabha polls from Berhampur seat. The BJD has dropped sitting Berhampur MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu.

BJD MP from Bhadrak Manjulata Mandal has been re-nominated by the ruling party to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls from the same seat.

The BJD has dropped sitting Keonjhar MP Chandrani Murmu and picked Dhanurjay Siddu as its candidate to fight the upcoming Parliamentary polls from the constituency. Parineeta Mishra got the BJD nomination for Bargarh Lok Sabha seat.

Brajrajnagar MLA Alaka Mohanty and Jharsuguda MLA Dipali Das have been re-nominated by the BJD for the ensuing Assembly polls in the state.

Ekamra-Bhubaneswar MLA and minister Ashok Panda, Bhubaneswar-North MLA Susanta Rout and Jagatsinghpur MLA Prasant Muduli also got re-nomination from the ruling party for 2024 Assembly polls.

The BJD, however, denied tickets to Mahanga MLA Pratap Jena and Tirtol MLA Bijay Shankar Das. The party has fielded Jena’s son Ankit Pratap from Mahanga and Ramakant Bhoi from Tirtol seat.

Khariar MLA Adhiraj Panigrahi, who joined the BJD after quitting Congress party recently, got the ruling party ticket from the same seat.

Notably, the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Odisha will be held in four phases on May 13, May 20, May 25 and June 1.

The counting of votes will be done on June 4.

List of candidates for 5 Lok Sabha seats:

Balangir: Surendra Singh Bhoi

Bhadrak: Manjulata Mandal

Bargarh: Parineeta Mishra

Berhampur: Bhrugu Baxipatra

Keonjhar: Dhanurjay Siddu

List of candidates for 27 Assembly seats:

Udala: Srinath Soren

Baripada: Sananda Marndi

Badasahi: Anusaya Patra

Moroda: Preetinanda Kanungo

Soro: Madhab Dhada

Athmallik: Nalinikant Pradhan

Birmaharajpur: Padmanav Behera

Brajrajnagar: Alaka Mohanty

Jharsuguda: Dipali Das

Talsara: Bijay Toppo

Sundargarh: Jogesh Singh

Rajgangpur: Anil Barwa

Bonai: Bhimsen Choudhury

Jashipur: Chakradhar Hembram

Khariar: Adhiraj Panigrahi

Phulbani: Jayshree Kanhar

Mahanga: Ankit Pratap Jena

Tirtol: Ramakant Bhoi

Jagatsinghpur: Prasant Muduli

Bhubaneswar-North: Susanta Rout

Ekamra-Bhubaneswar: Ashok Panda

Khalikote: Suryamani Vaidya

Aska: Manjula Swain

Berhampur: Ramesh Chyupatnaik

Paralakhemundi: Rupesh Panigrahi

Mohona: Antaryami Gamango

Pottangi: Prafulla Pangi