BHUBANESWAR: With the announcement of candidates for Andhra Pradesh Assembly election, the state unit of the BJP is expecting the central election committee (CEC) of the party to clear the list of candidates for the first two phases of Assembly elections within a day or two.
The CEC is meeting on March 29 to decide the candidates for three parliamentary constituencies of Cuttack, Jajpur and Kandhamal and 63 Assembly seats going to polls on May 13 and 20, sources in the party said.
Attributing the delay in announcement of candidates for the three Lok Sabha seats and Assembly seats to joining of some BJD leaders in the BJP, the sources said that senior leader and six-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab who resigned from BJD last week is likely to join the saffron party in New Delhi, possibly on Thursday. Speculations are rife that Mahtab will be the BJP candidate for Cuttack Lok Sabha seat which he has been representing for six times in a row.
Actor-turned-politician and two-time BJD MP from Berhampur Sidhant Mohapatra is also slated to join the BJP in the national capital. It is not clear if Mohapatra will be fielded from any seat.
Former BJD leader and two-time MP from Jajpur parliamentary constituency Mohan Jena who joined BJP in 2019 after being denied ticket by the regional party is also aspiring for a ticket from the saffron party this time. Sources said that the party may field Jena’s wife Harapriya Panigarhi from Jajpur seat.
After renomination of former minister Pratap Sarangi from Balasore Lok Sabha seat, there have been talks of BJP fielding Kharabela Swain from Kandhamal seat. Swain who lost to BJD in 2019 is not interested to contest from Kandhamal. State BJP vice-president Lekhashree Samantsinghar has been strongly lobbying for the Kandhamal seat, sources said.