Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to contest from two assembly seats

BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will contest two assembly seats

Bhubaneswar:

BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also contest from Kantabanji constituency in Bolangir district of western Odisha as well as from his traditional Hinjili constituency in Ganjam district.

This was announced by Naveen Patnaik today while releasing the fifth list of nine candidates for the assembly elections in the state.

Naveen Patnaik had also contested from two seats in the 2019 assembly elections. He won the assembly stages at Hingili and Bijapur in western Odisha’s Bargarh district. However, Mr. Patnaik later resigned from Bijapur and retained the Hinjili seat.

The nine BJD candidates announced by Patnaik include six women and four turncoats. The party has ousted four sitting MLAs – Purna Chandra Baka (Chitrakonda), Kishore Chandra Naik (Kuchinda), Rajnikant Singh (Angul) and Samir Ranjan Dash (Nimapara).

Naveen Patnaik also rewarded four traitors and nominated them to contest the assembly elections. They are: Arundhati Devi (Deogarh), Dillip Kumar Nayak (Nimapara), Rajendra Kumar Chhatria (Kuchinda) and Laxmipriya Nayak (Chitrakonda).

The six women candidates are Laxmipriya Nayak (Chitrakonda), Barsa Singh Bariha (Padampur), Arundhati Devi (Deogarh), Sanjukta Singh (Angul), Sulkhnsa Gitanajali Devi (Samakhemundi) and Dr. Indira Nanda (Jeypore).

The BJD rejected Angul MLA Rajanikant Singh’s party ticket but also nominated his wife Sanjukta Singh. Rabi Nanda, a former minister and former MP, was also denied party status. His wife Dr Indira Nanda was given a BJD ticket for the Jeypore rally segment in Koraput district.

Naveen Patnaik also nominated S Gitanajali Devi, daughter of Nandini Devi, former MP from Sanakhemundi assembly district ).

The BJD president also swapped candidates for the two leaders. Rairakhol MLA Rohit Pujari has been nominated from the Sambalpur Assembly segment, while Prasanna Acharya will contest from Rairakhol.

With this, the BJD has so far announced the names of 126 candidates in 147 assembly segments in Odisha.

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