Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal on Monday announced names of nine candidates for the Lok Sabha and 54 for the state Assembly.
In the first phase, Odisha will go to polls for four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly seats on April 11 while elections will be held for five Lok Sabha seats and 35 Assembly seats in the second phase on April 18.
Odisha Chief Minister and the BJD president Naveen Patnaik will contest from two seats – Bijepur in Bargarh district and Hinjili in Ganjam district.
“I will contest from Bijepur and Hinjli. Our party will do well in the elections,” Mr Patnaik said while announcing the first list of candidates.
As per the list, the BJD has dropped MLAs who lost by a narrow margin or won narrowly in the range of 0.5 per cent to 2.05 per cent in 2014 elections.
Of the nine Lok Sabha candidates, eight are new faces. Bolangir MP Kalikesh Singhdeo has been re-nominated.
Noted educationist Dr Achyuta Samanta has been named for the Kandhamal Lok Sabha ticket.
What is interesting is that the CM nominated Pramila Bisoi, a rural woman and leader of a woman self-help group to contest from Aska Lok Sabha seat that he represented twice in the past.
Former CM and senior Congress leader Hemananda Biswal’s daughter has been nominated to contest from Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat.
The BJD Lok Sabha candidates are Kaushalya Hikaka (Koraput), Ramesh Chandra Majhi (Nabarangpur), Pushpendra Singh Deo (Kalahandi), Chandrasekhar Sahu (Berhampur), Dr Achyuta Samanta (Kandhamal), Pramila Bishoyi (Aska), Prasanna Acharya (Bargarh), Kalikesh Singhdeo (Bolangir), Sunita Biswal ( Sundargarh).
