Bhubaneswar: Naveen to contest from Hinjili, Kantabanji
Prasanna Acharya, whose name was announced for Sambalpur seat earlier, will now fight from Rairakhol while Rohit Pujari, the candidate for Raiakhol, will contest from Sambalpur
Bhubaneswar : The BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will also contest from Kantabanji Assembly constituency in Bolangir district along with his traditional Hinjili seat in Ganjam district. This was announced by Naveen himself on Wednesday while releasing the 5th list of nine candidates for the Assembly elections.
Naveen in 2019 Assembly elections had also contested from two seats. He won from both Hinjili and Bijepur Assembly segment in Bargarh district. However, Naveen later resigned from Bijepur and retained Hinjili seat.
Analysts say the Chief Minister’s decision to contest one Assembly seat from Kantabanji is to counter the BJP, which has a strong base in western Odisha.
The nine BJD candidates announced by Naveen included six women and four turncoats. The party has dropped four sitting MLAs – Purna Chandra Baka (Chitrakonda), Kishore Chandra Naik (Kuchinda), Rajanikant Singh (Angul) and Samir Ranjan Dash (Nimapara).
Naveen has also rewarded four turncoats and nominated them to contest the Assembly polls. 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), Sulakhyana Gitanajali Devi (Samakhemundi) and Indira Nanda (Jeypore).
While denying party ticket to Angul MLA Rajanikant Singh, BJD nominated his wife Sanjukta Singh from the same seat. Former minister and ex-MLA Rabi Nanda was also denied party ticket. His wife Indira Nanda got the BJD ticket for Jeypore Assembly segment in Koraput district.
Naveen also nominated Gitanajali Devi, daughter of former MLA Nandini Devi, in Sanakhemundi Assembly segment. The BJD president also inter-changed the candidature of two leaders. Rairakhol MLA Rohit Pujari has been nominated from Sambalpur Assembly segment while Prasanna Acharya will contest from Rairakhol.
With this, the BJD has so far announced the names of 126 candidates out of the total 147 Assembly segments in Odisha.