BJP releases first list of candidates for Odisha assembly elections

Bhubaneswar: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday released its first list of candidates for the upcoming state assembly elections in Odisha.

The party has declared candidates for 112 constituencies out of the total 147 assembly seats.

The state BJP Chief Manmohan Samal has been nominated from Chandabali assembly constituency in Balasore.

Similarly, senior party leaders Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo, Tankadhar Tripathy and Irasis Acharya have been fielded from Patnagarh constituency in Balangir district, Jharsuguda assembly constituency and Bhatli constituency in Bargarh district.

The party has retained most of the sitting MLAs while many new faces have also been named this time.

Many sitting MLAs including Jaya Narayan Mishra, Kusum Tete, Nauri Nayak, Subhash Chandra Panigrahi, Shankar Oram, Jayant Kumar Sarangi, Mohan Charan Majhi and Mukesh Mahaling have been renominated from Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Rengali, Deogarh, Biramitrapur, Puri, Keonjhar and Loisingha assembly constituencies of the state.

The party has also nominated new candidates for other many assembly constituencies.

The party has nominated Upasana Mohapatra in place of her uncle and sitting MLA Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra for the Brahmagiri assembly seat in Puri district.

The party has fielded Tejeswar Parida from Patkura assembly seat in Kendrapara district.

Many leaders who have recently joined the BJP have also been nominated for many assembly constituencies of the state.

Former BJD MLAs including Priydarshi Mishra and Arabnida Dhali have been fielded from Bhubaneswar North and Jaydev assembly seats. Similarly, Cine stars Sidhant Mohapatra and Akash Das Nayak who joined the party a few days back have been fielded from Digapahandi in Ganjam and Korei in Jajpur district respectively.

Notably, BJP has already declared candidates for all the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies for the upcoming elections in the state.