With an aim to woo the young and first time voters, political parties have fielded many new faces to contest the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in the district. Total 71 candidates are in fray for the second phase elections scheduled on April 17. While nine candidates are contesting for the Lok Sabha seat, reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC), 62 will fight for seven Assembly seats.
According to reports, 67 per cent of the candidates fielded in the poll fray are new faces.
Of total 62 contestants for the Assembly seats, 42 are fresh faces. Similarly, six candidates fighting for the Lok Sabha seat are first-timers. Sukinda Assembly constituency tops the list with 10 newcomers of the total 13, followed by Korei with 8 of 10 and seven of nine candidates in Barachana segment.
While the Congress has fielded fresh candidates in Korei, Bari and Jajpur Assembly seats, ruling BJD has fielded newcomers in Korei and Dharmasala segments. In Korei, both BJD and Congress candidates will be contesting the elections for the first time. BJD nominee and Ollywood star Akash Das Nayak will fight it out with Congress candidate Biswajit Nayak. The sitting MLA of Korei Pritiranjan Ghadai is contesting for Sukinda seat on a BJD ticket after his father and former finance minister Prafulla Ghadai was dropped by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik this time.
For Jajpur seat, Congress nominee Santosh Kumar Nanda will contest against BJD’s Pranab Prakash Das while Congress candidate Gagan Jena will fight the polls against sitting MLA Debasis Nayak of BJD in Bari Assembly seat.
Besides, several new faces are contesting as Independent candidates and nominees of newly floated political parties in the ensuing elections.
For Jajpur Parliamentary seat, both Congress and BJD have fielded fresh candidates. Many BJD leaders do not even know party candidate Rita Tarai well while Ashok Das of
Congress is contesting for Lok Sabha seat for first time. Ashok had earlier contested from Binjharpur Assembly seat in 2004 elections and lost to Pramila Malik of BJD.
Amiya Malik is contesting for the seat on BJP ticket for the first time. He contested Parliamentary elections from Jajpur in 2004 and 2009 elections on Congress ticket but lost to BJD’s Mohan Jena.
FACT FILE
■ 67 pc of the candidates fielded in the poll fray are new faces
■ Six candidates fighting for the Lok Sabha seat are first-timers
■ While the Congress has fielded fresh candidates in Korei, Bari and Jajpur Assembly seats, ruling BJD has fielded newcomers in Korei and Dharmasala segments