Lok Sabha Elections 2019: BJP announces names of 10 Lok Sabha candidates, 99 assembly nominees in Odisha

The BJP has announced its candidates for ten of the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 99 of the 147 assembly constituencies rewarding deserters like former BJD lawmakers Baijayant Panda and Balabhadra Majhi and BJD MLAs Prakash Behera, Damodar Rout and K Narayan Rao.

But the Bharatiya Janata Party is yet to declare the names of candidates for Kalahandi and Koraput Lok Sabha seats, which will go to polls in the first phase on April 11 along with Nabarangpur and Berhampur.

Voting in Odisha will be held in four phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29 simultaneously for parliamentary and assembly constituencies. The results will be declared on May 23. The BJP had won one Lok Sabha seat and ten assembly seats in Odisha in the last elections.

The BJP, which is the last among the three major parties in Odisha to announce its candidate list, seems to have rewarded turncoats in several seats.

Former Biju Janata Dal member of Parliament Balabhadra Majhi, who had quit the ruling party two days ago, was nominated for Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency and former BJD MP Baijayant Panda, who is now the national vice-president of the BJP, got the ticket for the Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat.

Similarly, former BJD MLA K Narayan Rao was given the ticket from Paralakhemundi assembly constituency and former chairperson of Special Development Council in Sundargarh district Kusum Tete will fight the polls from Sundargarh seat after her resignation from the ruling party. Former Congress MLA from Salepur Prakash Behera would contest from the same seat on a BJP ticket.

“The BJP is fielding our people who have not got tickets. The BJP is dependent on our leaders. If we secretly allot tickets to our candidates without making any announcement, I think the BJP couldn’t even contest the elections,” remarked BJD MP Soumya Ranjan Patnaik.

Former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi will contest from the all-important Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency and Union tribal affairs minister Jual Oram will contest from Sundergarh again.

The other Lok Sabha candidates are Rudra Narayan Pani from Dhenkanal, Anita Subhadarshini from Aska, Bhrugu Baxipatra from Berhampur, Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo from Bolangir and Anant Nayak from Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat. Subhadarshini is an associate professor with IGNOU in New Delhi and is the daughter of former BJD strongman Ramakrushna Patnaik.

Sarangi, Subhadarshini and Deo are the three women in the list of ten Lok Sabha candidates.

Except for Kendrapara, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur and Aska, the party has not dropped any of the candidates who had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha election on BJP ticket.

Former minister Damodar Rout, who had joined the BJP recently after he was expelled by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, will contest from the Balikuda-Erasama assembly constituency.

The party has given tickets to 9 women in its first list of candidates for the assembly election.