Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from Sambalpur seat

Bhubaneswar, Odisha:

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday announced the list of candidates for 18 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha, while deleting four sitting legislators from the list.

The party is yet to finalize its nominees for Cuttack, Jajpur and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies.

Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan will contest from the Sambalpur seat.

The party fielded four women – Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), Sangeeta Kumari Deo (Bolangir), Malvika Keshari Deo (Kalahandi) and Anita Subhadarshini (Askar).

The sitting MPs who were denied a BJP ticket this time are Suresh Pujari (Bargarh), Union Minister Bisheswar Tudu (Mayrbhanj), Nitish Gun Deb (Sambalpur) and Basan Basant Panda (Kalahandi).

The party nominated Pradeep Purohit to replace Pujari and Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan to replace Nitish in Sambalpur Nitish Gang Deb.

Rairangpur MLA Naba Charan Majhi replaced Bisheswar Tudu from Mayurbhaj seat. Malvika Keshari Deo has emerged as the new candidate, replacing Basant Kumar Panda from Kalahandi LS seat.

The remaining sitting MPs are Jual Oram (Sundergarh), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Balasore), Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo (Bolangir) and Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar).

The other BJP candidates are Ananta Nayak (Keonjhar), Abhimanyu Sethi (Bhadrak), Rudra Pany (Dhenkanal), Baijayat Panda (Kendrapara), Balabhadra Majhi (Nabarangpur), Bibhu Tarai (Jagatsinghpur), Sambit Patra (Puri), Pradeep Panigrahy (Berhampur) and Kaliram Majhi (Koraput).

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