Bhubaneswar:

Congress on Sunday announced a list of 75 candidates for the upcoming assembly elections in Odisha, including former chief minister JB Patnaik’s son Pruthvi Ballav Patnaik and former Union minister KP Singhdeo’s relative Sushmita Singh Deo.

The party released its second list of candidates for the parliamentary elections, including 9 women among the 75 candidates.

The list, signed by All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal, includes several new faces and some former MLAs.

There has been a change in the candidates for the three assembly seats of Tharsala, Baliguda and Kabisurya Nagar.

Former India hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey replaced by Debendra Bhitaria at Talsara, while Upendra Pradhan Pradhan replaced Surada Pradhan in Baliguda. Similarly, Bipin Bihari Swain replaced Chiranjeevi Bisoyi in Kabisuryanagar.

Dr Debasmita Sharma, daughter of former Aul MLA Debendra Sharma, has been nominated to succeed her father. Asit Patnaik, son of former MLA Jugal Patnaik, who recently joined the Congress after resigning from the BJD, has been nominated as Bhadrak.

The party decided to remove two sitting MLAs – Suresh Routray and Adhiraj Panigrahi – from the candidate list.

Jatani MLA Routray had earlier announced his decision not to contest the 2024 elections, while Khariar legislator Panigrahi quit the party and joined the BJD.

He has been nominated by the BJD to contest from Khariar.

Among them, former Odisha Congress Party (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik and Jaydev Jena will contest from Bhndareipokhari and Anandapur assembly constituencies respectively. Former MLA Debasish Pattnaik will contest from the Banki assembly unit.

Congress has named Rajanikanta Padhi from Hinjili as its candidate and BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik is also a nominee.

With this announcement, Congress has nominated 119 out of 147 candidates in the state. Two seats have been adjusted as per CPI(M) and JMM.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)