BJD announces candidates for 9 Lok Sabha and 36 Assembly seats

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday announced the BJD candidates for the 9 Lok Sabha constituencies and 36 assembly seats going to polls in the 3rd and 4th phase of polls that includes former Mumbai police commissioner, an Odia actor, a Santhali tribal doctor and two former bureaucrats, among others.

Former Mumbai police commissioner Arup Patnaik, Odia actor and Rajya Sabha MP Anubhav Mohanty, retired bureaucrat Nalinikanta Pradhan, young Santhali doctor Debashis Marandi, sitting MP and Supreme Court lawyer Pinaki Mishra are among the party’s candidates for the Lok Sabha polls. Keeping with the promise of 33 per cent reservation for women candidates in the Lok Sabha polls, the party has so far named six women candidates for the 18 Lok Sabha seats announced so far. It is yet to announce the candidates for Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls in 3rd and 4th phase.

Odia actor Anubhav Mohanty would be the party candidate against Baijayant Jay Panda of BJP in Kendrapara Lok Sabha, while former IPS officer Arup Patnaik would lock horns with former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi in the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat. Incumbent MP, Pinaki Mishra would battle it out with BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra in Puri. In the reserved Lok Sabha constituency of Jajpur, the party nominated former state administrative officer Sarmistha Sethi while in Bhadrak, it would pit Manjulata Mandal, a housewife and spouse of sitting Dhamnagar MLA Muktikanta Mandal. For the tribal-dominated Myurbhanj Lok Sabha seat, the party chose Debashis Marandi, a 42-year-old doctor and former candidate of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. The party has so far dropped 14 of its sitting MPs.

In the 36 candidates for assembly elections, the party dropped several sitting MLAs who were either tainted by chit fund scam or wanted to opt out of electoral politics and chose their sons instead. Banki MLA Pravat Tripathy, an accused in the Artha Tatwa chit fund scam made way for his son Debi Ranjan Tripathy. Similarly, Seashore chit fund scam accused Prabhat Biswal made way for his son Souvik Biswal in Cuttack-Choudwar assembly seat. Forest minister Bijoyshree Routray, who did not wish to be in electoral politics, similarly made way for his son Bishnubrata Routray in Basudevpur assembly constituency.

With rebellion cropping up in several assembly constituencies, Patnaik however did not risk changing the incumbent MLAs in at least 25 of the 36 assembly seats. Over the last week, more than a dozen sitting MPs, MLAs as well as former MLAs have quit the party expressing their resentment over ticket distribution.

With today’s announcement, the BJD has so far announced 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 101 of the 147 assembly constituencies. On the other hand, the BJP has so far announced 17 of the 21 Lok Sabha and 131 of the 147 assembly constituencies. The Congress which promised to be the first with the list is lagging behind with candidates for just 8 Lok Sabha and 91 Assembly constituencies. The party has left the Aska Lok Sabha constituency to its ally — CPI.

First Published: Mar 27, 2019 22:08 IST