BHUBANESWAR: The BJP on Monday nominated senior leader Bijay Mohapatra from Patkura Assembly segment and popular Odia cine star Aparajita Mohanty from Bhubaneswar-North seat.The central election committee of BJP announced the names of candidates for three of the remaining four Lok Sabha and 11 out of 15 Assembly seats that will go to polls in the last phase.The candidature of Mohapatra was announced four days after he rejoined the party which he had quit along with former Union minister Dilip Ray in November last year.
Mohapatra, who could not file his nomination from Patkura in 2000 polls due to last minute betrayal by the BJD, has not been able to make to it to the Assembly since then. A former Water Resources minister in the Biju Patnaik Government, Mohapatra had joined BJP in 2009 and contested from the seat the same year. However, he was defeated by BJD’s Bed Prakash Agarwal. This time, Mohapatra will once again face his traditional rival Agarwal, a sitting BJD MLA from the seat.
In 2014 polls, Mohapatra changed his constituency and tried his luck from Mahakalpada where he faced his arch rival and sitting BJD MLA Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak. However, he faced another defeat.After nominating bureaucrat-turned-politician Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency, BJP has fielded cine star Mohanty from Bhubaneswar-North Assembly seat. State BJP spokesperson Dilip Mohanty, who contested from the seat last time, was seeking a renomination from the party this time.
The BJP ticket for Nilagiri Assembly seat has gone to sitting BJD MLA Sukanta Nayak who joined the saffron party after being denied renomination by BJD. Similarly, a day after joining BJP, former chairman of Puri Municipality Jayant Sarangi got the party nomination from Puri Assembly seat.
After resignation of BJP vice president Raj Kishore Das, a senior leader from Mayurbhanj, the party has given ticket to Krushna Chandra Mohapatra for Morada Assembly segment. The party is yet to announce candidates for four Assembly seats of Basta, Bhograi, Champua and Kendrapara (SC).Abhimanyu Sethi, son of sitting MP from Bhadrak Arjun Charan Sethi, is the BJP candidate for the reserved Parliamentary seat. The father-son duo joined the saffron party on Sunday after senior Sethi was denied BJD ticket. The party has renominated Amiya Mallick for Jajpur (SC) constituency while Bisweswar Tudu, an engineer by profession, has been given ticket for the tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj seat. The BJP is yet to name its candidate for Jagatsingpur Parliamentary seat.