Bhubaneswar:

The BJP renominated 17 of Odisha’s 22 sitting legislators and announced its candidate list for 112 of the state’s 147 assembly constituencies. The party ousted Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, a councilor from Brahmagiri constituency in Puri district, and ousted his niece Upasana .

The party’s candidates for the other three MLA seats in the outgoing parliament were not announced that day.

Rairangpur MLA Naba Charan Majhi has been selected as the parliamentary candidate from Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat.

The party has fielded eight women contestants including Sundergarh MLA Kusum Tete so far.

Five BJD traitors were also nominated as BJP candidates.

The party has also nominated former income tax commissioner Sambit Tripathy from Badamba and actor-turned-politician Akash Das Nayak from Kore.

Kalahandi MP Basant Kumar Panda’s son Abhinandan will contest from Nupada.

As per the list, BJP state president Manmohan Samar will contest from Chandbari in Bhadrak district while sitting MP from Bhagar Suresh Pujari in Brajaraj Nagar . Mr Pujari was denied a party ticket this time to contest the Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP has fielded Sisir Mishra to contest from Hinjili Assembly constituency against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while former BJP MP Pratisha Rajeshwar Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh will contest from Nayagarh assembly constituency against former minister and sitting MP Arun Kumar Sahoo.

Opposition leader in Odisha Assembly Jaynarayan Mishra will contest from his traditional Sambalpur assembly seat. Former minister and ex-BJP state president KV Singhdeo will contest from Pat Nagar Assembly seat in Bolangir district. His wife Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo is the BJP candidate from Bolangir Lok Sabha seat.

Five turncoats from the BJD, Arabinda Dhali, Akash Das Nayak, Siddhant Mohapatra, Purna Chandra Sethi and Priyadarshi Mishra were given the BJP ticket.

Arabinda Dhali will fight from Jayadev Assembly area in Khurda district.

Former MLA Purna Chandra Sethi, who quit the BJD on March 26 and joined the BJP, will contest from the Khallikote assembly seat. He won two consecutive constituency elections in 2009 and 2014, but was rejected from running in 2019.

BJP youth leader Tankadhar Tripathy to contest assembly elections in Jharsuguda, MLA Kusum Tete to contest Sundargarh assembly seat and Biswaranjan Badajena from Jatni are contesting.

Jagannath Pradhan was fielded from Bhubaneswar Central, Babu Singh was fielded from Bhubaneswar Ekhamra and Prithiviraj Harichandan was fielded from Chilika assembly seat.

The party also elected sitting MPs Suryabansh Suraj (son of late leader Bishnu Sethi), Padmalokan Pant from Simuliya from Dhamnagar constituency Da, Rajendra Das from Soro, Gobinda Chandra Das from Ramuna, Manas Kumar Dutta from Balasore, Jales Pradhan Pradhan, Erasis from Var. Acharya from Batli.

Senior BJP leader Mohan Majhi took a jibe at the ruling BJD’s recent statement that the saffron party was unable to find candidates for all 147 assembly seats.

“Now, the BJP has announced a list of 112 candidates, 40 more than the 72 candidates announced by the BJD. We have strong candidates in all Assembly and Lok Sabha seats,” Mr Majhi told reporter.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)