Samikhsya Bureau
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday announced the names of 10 candidates for Lok Sabha and 100 candidates for assembly elections in Odisha in the first phase.
The Lok Sabha candidates are Jual Oram from Sundargarh, Ananta Nayak from Keojhar, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Baijayanta Panda from Kendrapara, Rudra Narayan Pani from Dhenkanal, Balabhadra Majhi from Nabarangpur, Aparajita Sarangi from Bhubaneswar, Anita Subhadarshini from Aska, Bhrugu Baxipatra from Berhampur and Sangeeta Singh Deo from Balangir,
Union minister Jual Oram will contest from Sundargarh from where he was elected in 2014. Sundargarh was the only Lok Sabha seat the BJP had won in Odisha. This time pitted against Oram are Biju Janata Dal’s Sunita Biswal and Congress’ George Tirkey. Biswal, daughter of former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Hemananda Biswal, recently joined the BJD while Biramitrapur MLA Tirkey recently joined the Congress.
Sangeeta Singh Deo, who has been repeated from Balangir, will fight old rival and sitting MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo. The party has also repeated Sarangi, who unsuccessfully contested Balasore in 2014.
Balabhadra Majhi won from Nabarangpur on a BJD ticket in 2014. But recently he resigned from the party after chief minister and BJD supremo decided to reserve 33 per cent Lok Sabha seats for women candidates and joined the BJP. Balabhadra Majhi will fight it out with two formidable candidates – BJD’s Ramesh Chandra Majhi and Congress’ Pradeep Majhi. Ramesh Chandra Majhi is a minister in the state government while Pradeep Majhi represented the constituency between 2009 and 2014.
Baijayanta Panda had also won the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat in 2014 on a BJD ticket but resigned from the seat after being removed from the BJD by Patnaik. After he joined the BJP recently, he was made its national vice president and it was quite well known that he would be fielded by the national party from Kendrapara.
In Aska, Subhadarshini will face BJD’s Pramila Bishoyi, a self-help group leader handpicked by Patnaik. On the other hand, Baxipatra will contest against former Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu, who shifted from the Congress to BJD last year.
