Bhubaneswar, April 29 Many senior leaders of various political parties in Odisha on Monday filed their nomination papers for the upcoming simultaneous Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections.
Among the heavyweights from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), party spokesperson and its candidate for Puri Lok Sabha constituency, Sambit Patra, filed nomination papers at the district collector's office on Monday.
BJP's nominee for Pipili Assembly seat, Ashrit Patnaik, also filed the nomination papers at the deputy collector's office.
Patra along with Patnaik, embarked on a mammoth rally from Uttara on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar to Puri before filing the nomination papers on Monday. Hundreds of party workers took part in the BJP rally from Pipili to Puri.
Sambit Patra had lost the Puri Lok Sabha seat after a close fight with the Biju Janata Dal's candidate and lawyer Pinaki Misra in the 2019 general election.
BJD has fielded former Mumbai police commissioner and ex-IPS officer, Arup Patnaik against Patra in Puri Lok Sabha constituency this time.
Meanwhile, Congress has nominated Sucharita Mohanty from the Puri Lok Sabha seat.
Similarly, BJD heavyweight Sanjay Das Burma, the party's candidate for the Satyabadi Assembly seat, reached Puri by taking out a huge rally along with party workers and filed his nomination papers on Monday.
Filing of nominations commenced in the state on Monday for the third phase of the Odisha leg of polling on May 25.
Polling will be held in six Lok Sabha constituencies -- Puri, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Keonjhar -- of the state on May 25.
On the other hand, several other leaders, including former Union Minister Dilip Ray, filed the nominations in their respective constituencies.
Ray has been fielded by the BJP from Rourkela Assembly seat.
Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be held simultaneously in Odisha in four phases from May 13 to June 1. The results will be out on June 4.
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