By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: The Biju Janata Dal has so far announced 20 Lok Sabha candidates, of the total 21 seats in Odisha. The Party has yet not announced its candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat.
While grapevines are on high that senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik’s son Navajyoti Patnaik may join BJD and likely become Party’s Lok Sabha candidate in Balasore.
Meanwhile, of the total 20 Lok Sabha candidates BJD, announced so far, only 4 sitting MPs were given tickets. They were Dr Achuta Samant in Kandhamal, Sarmistha Sethi in Jajpur, Rajashree Mallick in Jagatsinghpur and Manjulata Mandal in Bhadrak.
On the other hand of the 20 candidates BJD announces so far for Lok Sabha polls, 12 candidates did not fought in 2019 Parliamentary polls. Due to disconnection, such candidates may face tough time during election campaigning.
These 12 candidates are Pranab Prakash Das , Lambodhar Nial , Dilip Tirkey Sudam Marandi , Anshuman Mohanty , Manmath Routray , Ranjita Sahu , Abinash Samal , Santrupt Misra , Surendra Singh Bhoi, Parinita Mishra , Dhananjay Sidhu.
Among BJD ‘s 20 candidates , 4 candidates including Pradeep Majhi, Bhrugu Buxipatra, Kaushalya Hikaka and Arup Patnaik were defeated in 2019 Polls as Congress, BJP and BJD candidates respectively at that time. Buxipatra now with BJP and fight against Saffron Party’s stalwart leader Pradeep Panigrahi in Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, where siting MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu was dropped and was appointed BJD’s Vice President and Manifesto Committee Chairman.
