All the three major political parties in Odisha including the ruling BJD are yet to release the complete candidates’ list for all the 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats although the nomination for the third phase begins on Thursday.
The Congress today released the name of candidates for seven Lok Sabha and 20 Assembly seats while the ruling BJD announced the candidates for 18 Assembly seats.
With the fresh list, the BJD had so far released candidates for 18 Lok Sabha and 117 Assembly seats and the Congress announced candidates for 15 Lok Sabha and 110 Assembly seats.
On the other hand, the Opposition BJP has so far released candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats and 130 Assembly seats.
Going by the lists of the ruling BJD, the party had dropped 15 sitting MPs and 32 sitting MLAs so far while the party is still undecided to nominate the candidates for Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar Lok Sabha seats.
At least four sitting BJD Rajya Sabha members- Achyut Samant, Prasanna Acharaya, Anubhav Mohanty and Pratap Keshari Deb are in the fray, three of them in Lok Sabha and one for Assembly seat.
The party had fielded Mr A Samant for Kandhmal Lok sabha seat,Mr. P Acharaya for Bargarh Lok Sabha seat and Mr.Anubhav Mohanty for kendrapara Lok Sabha seat.
While Mr Pratap Keshari Deb has been nominated for Aul assembly seat which he had successfully contested thrice in a row in 2000,2004 and 2009 Assembly elections.
Similarly, out of the 18 councils of ministers in the Naveen Patnaik government, so far 16 ministers have been re-nominated to contest the elections.
State Forest Minister Bijayashree Routray, however, this time allowed his son to contest the Basudebpur assembly which he has been winning for last six times in a row since 1990 Assembly elections.
The party is yet to announce the name of the state Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera representing from Jayadev (SC) Assembly seat.
At least 10 ministers who were dropped from the cabinet by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the past have been allowed to seek re-election from their respective constituency. (UNI)
