Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik Sunday announced a list of nine candidates for the second phase of Assembly elections after launching the party’s campaign. Earlier, the party had nominated 54 candidates for Assembly.
The names of nine candidates released in the day were not divulged during the first two phases of nominations for Assembly seats. The candidates who got party tickets in the second list include family members of incumbent party leaders and a former member of the Congress party.
The party has named Prakash Chandra Majhi, who is the brother of minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi, for Jharigam Assembly seat.
The party has also made some alterations by removing the sitting MLAs at several places. The party has accommodated Pradip Kumar Dishari from Lanjigarh who had contested elections unsuccessfully on a Congress ticket last time before joining the BJD this year.
Interestingly, five sitting MLAs have been replaced with new faces in Pottangi, Loisinga, Lanjigarh, Malkangiri and Jharigram. On the other hand, sitting MLAs from Sambalpur, Rairakhol and Brajrajnagar have been able to retain their nominations.
Earlier, the party had declared the list of 54 assembly seats going to the polls in the first and second phases of election along with names of nine Lok Sabha candidates. While the Chief Minister refrained from announcing the names of MP candidates for the remaining seats, he named the nine candidates for the Assembly seats going to polls in the first two phases.
Similarly, the party president named Arkesh Narayan Singh Deo from Bolangir. Arkesh happens is the brother of Bolangir MP Kalikesh Singh Deo and son of Rajya Sabha MP AU Singh Deo.
