BHUBANESWAR: Kandhamal MP and former BJD leader Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh joined the BJP here on Saturday in presence of senior party leaders including state president Basant Panda, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, and legislature party leader K V Singh Deo.
"My target is BJD and I want to see that the party is defeated in the coming elections," Pratyusha said after joining the saffron party at the residence of K V Singh Deo.
Pratyusha who resigned from the BJD on Wednesday after being denied renomination from the parliamentary seat which she represented following the death of her husband Hemendra Singh had expressed her interest to join the Congress.
In fact, she had a discussion with Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik and she was mostly to join the party today. As the Congress had announced candidate for Kandhamal Lok Sabha, the party had offered her to fight either from Nayagarh Assembly seat or Puri parliamentary constituency.
Since she was keen to contest from Kandhamal once again, the BJP proposal came handy, sources said. While candidate for Kandhamal seat has not been announced by the BJP, names of several aspirants are making the rounds for the seat.
Meanwhile, putting an end to speculations over Prime Minister Narendra Modi contesting from Puri Lok Sabha constituency, the saffron party nominated national BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra as its candidate for the prestigious parliamentary seat.
Releasing the second list of candidates for 36 Lok Sabha seats of four states including five for Odisha on late Friday night, the Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party nominated state BJP president Basant Kumar Panda for Kalahandi, national secretary Suresh Pujari for Bargarh, Nitesh Ganga Deb for Sambalpur and Jayaram Pangi for Koraput parliamentary constituencies respectively.
Earlier, the party had announced the name of candidates for 10 parliamentary seats including Sundargarh (Jual Oram), Kendrapara (Baijayant Panda), Bhubaneswar (Aparajita Sarangi) and Balangir (Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo). The BJP which had released names of 99 candidates in the first list for Assembly elections also announced 22 more candidates in the second list.