BJD declares candidates for 9 Lok Sabha constituencies and 72 assembly seats

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday announced the candidates for nine of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 72 of the 147 assembly constituencies for the upcoming Parliament and Assembly elections in Odisha with chief minister Naveen Patnaik fielded from Hinjili assembly seat.
Patnaik announced the names of the candidates from Naveen Niwas even as the party changed 13 in the Assembly and 7 in the Lok Sabha list.
For the prestigious Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency, the party chose former Air India pilot Manmath Routray, who joined the BJD a few hours ago. Routray is the younger son of Congress veteran and six-time MLA Suresh Routray.
For Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat, the party reposed its faith on former Captain of Indian hockey team Dilip Tirkey who had contested from the same seat in 2014 but lost to BJP veteran and former Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram.
Odisha would see simultaneous elections to Assembly and Lok Sabha in four phases beginning from May 13.
In the prestigious Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency, from where Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan is fighting on a BJP ticket, the BJD has chosen its organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, son of former Janata Dal veteran Ashok Das.
The other notable names in the Lok Sabha candidate list are revenue minister Sudam Marndi for Mayurbhanj, former Congress MLA Anshuman Mohanty for Kendrapara and former Congress MP Pradeep Majhi for Nabarangpur.
The BJD dropped sitting MP Anubhav Mohanty from Kendrapara. For Kalahandi Lok Sabha constituency, the party gave ticket to Lambodar Nial who had lost from Khariar assembly constituency in 2019 election. In Aska Lok Sabha, the party chose a newcomer, Ranjita Sahu, in place of Pramila Bisoyi, a former self-help group (SHG) leader.
Nearly 90% of the BJD Lok Sabha candidates whose names featured today did not contest Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Of the nine BJD Lok Sabha candidates, only Kaushalya Hikaka contested in 2019
Among the candidates for 72 Assembly seats, 13 are new faces. The BJD has swapped its candidates, who had fought 2019 from Bhadrak and Bhandaripokhari and also from Brahmagiri and Satyabadi. Kalikesh Singh Deo, who was earlier an MP, has been fielded from Bolangir assembly constituency this time.
The list has family members of several sitting MLAs. Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat candidate Ansuman Mohanty is the son of former BJD minister late Nalinikanta Mohanty while Arabinda Mohapatra, son of former minister Bijay Mohapatra will contest from Patkura. Biplab Patra, son of former minister late Surya Narayan Patra, will contest from Digapahandi while Sunil Mohanty, son of former minister late Maheswar Mohanty, is the party candidate from Puri assembly constituency.
Subasini Jena, wife of former Balasore MP Rabindra Jena is the party candidate from Basta assembly constituency.