The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released its list of 21 candidates for the upcoming Odisha assembly elections on Tuesday, April 16. The list includes 21 names, including Dilip Ray, Sanjali Murmu, and Akhil Chandra Naik.
Earlier, the party re-nominated 17 of its 22 sitting MLAs in the state while announcing the list of candidates for 112 of the 147 Assembly constituencies. The party dropped one legislator, Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, from the Brahmagiri constituency in the Puri district and fielded his niece Upasana.
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Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has fielded two octogenarian candidates for the state Assembly polls. The BJD has fielded over 80-year-old Ramesh Chandra Chyaupatnaik from the Berhampur assembly seat in Ganjam district, from where he was elected five times in a row till 2014.
At least five turncoats who recently joined the BJP after quitting the BJD also got BJP tickets. They are Amarndra Dash (Jagatsinghpur), Dambaru Sisa (Chitrakonda), Kalilash Kulesika (Laxmipur), Bhadav Hansdah (Saraskana) and Jagannath Nudruka (Bissam Katak).
Ray will fight against Odisha's Labour Minister and BJD candidate Sarada Nayak from the Rourkela seat. The party also changed two candidates who were named in the previous list. Surama Padhi was replaced by Tapas Ranjan Martha in the Ranpur assembly segment while the party nominated Chaitanya Nandibali in place of Chaitanya Hantal in the Pottangi assembly segment.
Two women candidates - Surama Padhi and Sanjali Murmu (Bangirposi) - also figure in the list of 21 candidates released by the BJP. With this, the BJP has so far announced the names of 131 candidates out of 147 assembly segments in Odisha. The party had earlier released the names of candidates for all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in Odisha will be held on May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1 for 21 seats, and the result will be declared on June 4, 2024.