Family first in Cong list of poll candidates

Bhubaneswar: In a departure from its stand of not giving tickets to more than one member of a political family, the Congress has decided to field leaders Narasingha Mishra, Bhakta Das and George Tirkey and their sons in the forthcoming elections.
Narasingha, the leader of opposition in the outgoing assembly, will contest from Balangir assembly seat while his son Samarendra will be fighting from Balangir Lok Sabha segment. Former Union minister Bhakta is nominee for Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat while his son Sagar will make his debut as a candidate from Bhawanipatna assembly seat. George, who is an MLA from Biramitrapur in the outgoing assembly, has been made the candidate for Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat with his son Rohit Joseph now contesting from Biramitrapur assembly seat.

Recently, the All India Congress Committee in-charge of Odisha, Jitendra Singh had said the party will stick to one family, one ticket policy. State party president Niranjan Patnaik said, “There is no harm in relaxing the norm where more than one person of a family is involved in politics.”