No ticket for Raghunath, as BJD names candidates for 15 Assembly seats

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Mar 24, 2014 at 12:20 PM Updated On : Mar 24, 2014 at 8:08 PM

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Mar 24:

Former minister Raghunath Mohanty and sitting MLAs Jitu Patnaik in Champua and Bibhuti Balabantaray in Jatni were the prominent losers as BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik announced the list of candidates for 15 Assembly seats in Odisha a short while ago. The candidates for two Assembly seats – Nialii and Patkura – are still to be named.

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Raghunath Mohanty, who is an accused in a dowry torture case, has been replaced by Nityananda Sahu in Basta.

Popular comedian Pappu Pom Pom was named as the BJD candidate in Champua while sitting Jatni MLA Bibhuti Balabantaray lost out to Bhagirathi Badjena, who was shifted from Bhubaneswar North. Youth leader Priyadarshi Mishra was named in place of Badjena in Bhubaneswar North.

The list of candidates announced by Patnaik a short while ago is as follows:

Papu Pampam-Champua, Sudarsan Jena-Remuna, Kishore Chandra Tarai-Kendrapara, Muktikam Mandal-Dhamnagar, Mayadhar Jena-Anandpur, Abhiram Nayak-Keonjhar, Pravin Bhanjadeo-Morada, Parsuram Dhada-Soro, Alekh Jena-Rajnagar, Bhagirathi Badajena-Jatni, Priyadarshi Mishra-Bhubaneswar (North), Nityananda Sahu-Basta, Rajendra Sahu-Khordha, Sushil Hansda-Rairangpur, Vedavyas Nayak-Telkoi

Seven sitting BJD MLAs have been denied tickets. They are; Raghunath Mohanty -Basta, Bibhuti Balabantaray -Jatni, Bhagirathi Sethi -Anandapur, Premananda Naik -Telkoi, Sipra Mallick -Kendrapara, Subarna Naik -Keonjhar and Rajendra Das -Dhamnagar.

With this, a total of 35 sitting MLAs and six sitting MPs have been denied tickets by the party supremo this time.