BHUBANESWAR: The BJD on Wednesday released its first list of candidates for the ensuing elections with Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and party supremo announcing the names for 15 Lok Sabha and 72 Assembly seats. The party has changed candidates in 11 of the 15 Lok Sabha seats and set the stage for some high voltage fights in several constituencies.
While the chief minister will contest from his traditional Hinjili Assembly seat that he has won for five consecutive times, the poll battle to watch would be the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat where organisational secretary of the party Pranab Prakash Das will take on Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Das, a three-time MLA from Jajpur seat, will for the first time fight the Lok Sabha polls while Pradhan will contest in a direct election after 15 years and also the first after becoming an Union minister in 2014.
Both Pradhan and Das have been active in Sambalpur for the last one year. Pradhan’s intention to contest from Sambalpur had been abundantly clear with his focus and frequent visits to the region. Das is the BJD observer for the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency and has been visiting all the seven Assembly segments of the Lok Sabha constituency regularly. Das has also constantly pitted himself against Pradhan on various platforms including X, where he regularly countered or challenged the latter on different issues concerning Odisha.
The prestigious Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat has also turned into an interesting affair with Naveen announcing the name of Manmath Routray, son of senior Congress MLA Suresh Kumar Routray, hsours after he joined the party. The announcement came as a surprise as Shreemayee Mishra was projected as the party’s candidate from the constituency since the last one year. Mamath will take on sitting BJP MP and party’s national spokesperson Aparajita Sarangi.
Santrupt Mishra, the national spokesperson of the BJD has been fielded from the Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency. Mishra, a former director of HR of Birla Group, has replaced six-time BJD MP from the constituency Bhartruhari Mahtab, who resigned from the party last week.
The Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency is also set to witness a high-profile contest between BJP national vice-president and former MP from the constituency Baijayant Panda and BJD candidate Anshuman Mohanty. Anshuman is the son of former minister minister Nalinikanta Mohanty, who had been removed from the ministry under shadow of corruption, and joined Congress subsequently. Sitting MP and Odia film actor Anubhav Mohanty has been dropped from the seat.
Former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik will take on BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra in Puri. Sources said the sitting BJD MP from the constituency, Pinaki Mishra was not considered because of his unwillingness to contest the polls. The BJD has picked Revenue and Disaster Management minister Sudam Marndi for Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha constituency. Marndi, the former president of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha’s Odisha unit had won from the seat in 2004. He joined BJD in 2014 and represents Bangiriposi in the Assembly. He will take on Naba Charan Majhi of the BJP. Other high profile candidates include Hockey India president Dilip Tirkey who has been fielded from Sundargarh and former MP Pradeep Majhi from Nabarangpur.
Another surprise candidate is Lambodar Nial from Kalahandi. The present general secretary of Jadav Mahasangha, Nial had contested on BJD ticket from Khariar assembly segment under Kalahandi LS seat in 2014 and 2019 and lost both. Abinash Samal fielded from Dhenkanal is a radiologist. He is the nephew of Dhenkanal MLA Sudhir Samal.
Three sitting MPs Achyuta Samanta from Kandhamal, Sharmishta Sethy from Jajpur and Rajashree Mallick from Jagatsinghpur have been repeated while Kaushalya Hikaka, who fought the last Lok Sabha polls from Koraput has also been retained.
