BHUBANESWAR: The Congress on Sunday announced its second list of 75 Assembly candidates for the upcoming elections in the state. The list includes names of veteran leaders and former presidents of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik and Jayadev Jena.
While Patnaik will contest from Bhandaripokhari, Jena has been fielded by the party from his traditional stronghold Anandpur. Besides, former MLA Debasis Patnaik has been nominated from Banki from where he had won in 2004. Former Chief minister JB Patnaik’s son Pruthvi Ballav Patnaik will also make his electoral debut from the Begunia seat.
The party has nominated new faces in most of the places, except a dozen seats where known names will be in fray. Senior leader and former MP Yashwant Narayan Singh Laguri will contest from Champua Assembly seat in Keonjhar. Laguri had won the Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat on a BJD ticket in 2009. He had quit the regional party and joined Congress recently.
However, the party has changed its candidate for Talsara ST seat. Former India hockey player Prabodh Tirkey was announced for the seat by Congress earlier. He has been replaced by Devendra Bhitaria. Sources in the party said Tirkey’s candidature was changed because of the preponderance of Bhitaria caste in Talsara. Besides, there was large-scale discontentment among members of the caste over Tirkey’s candidature.
Similarly, the party has changed nominee for Kabisuryanagar seat in Ganjam district and fielded Bipin Behari Swain, a local party leader in place of Chiranjeevi Bisoyi. From Baliguda ST seat, Upendra Pradhan has been fielded in place Surada Pradhan.
For the first time in years, no member from the family of senior leader and Jatni MLA Suresh Kumar Routray has been fielded. Santosh Jena, local leader, has been fielded from the constituency.
Noisy scenes were witnessed in Congress Bhawan during Jena’s induction into the party only recently. He was reportedly propped up by Suresh’s elder son, Siddharth Routray. The joining ceremony of Jena, who quit BJP, had to cancelled due to the uproar. But he joined the party later and has been announced as the candidate from Jatni seat.
Vice-president of the state Mahila Congress Bandita Parida has been fielded from Korei while Asit Patnaik, son of former minister Jugal Kishore Patnaik has been fielded from Bhadrak. Durga Prasad Padhi will contest from Sambalpur while Prabhati Manjari Nayak has been fielded from Keonjhar.