BJD Drops Two Sitting MLAs In 8th List For Odisha Assembly Polls

Bhubaneswar: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president, Naveen Patnaik Saturday announced candidates for three Assembly seats in the eighth list, denying party tickets to two sitting BJD MLAs.

BJD’s 8th list for Odisha assembly polls featured the candidature of Gautam Buddha Das from Bhograi, Pradeep Sahu from Begunia and Rajendra Kumar Sahu from Khurda.

With this announcement, the Conch party has declared candidates for 144 of the total 147 Assembly seats. However, the ruling party is to finalise and announce candidates for the remaining three Assembly seats Khandpada, Nilagiri, and Korei.

The BJD has expelled its sitting MLA from Khandapada, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, for anti-party activities. Similarly, Khurda sitting MLA Jyotindra Nath Mitra was denied a party ticket despite being elected to the Assembly thrice from the seat.

The party fielded Rajendra Kumar Sahu in place of Khurda sitting MLA Jyotindra Nath Mitra, who was elected to the Assembly thrice from the seat, once as an Independent candidate (2000-2004) and twice as Biju Janata Dal candidate in 2004 and 2019 elections.

On the other hand, Goutam Budhha Das was named as the party candidate for Bhograi Assembly seat replacing four-time MLA and former minister Ananta Das. Ananta Das won from the Bhograi Assembly seat four times in a row starting in 2004. He has also served as the government Chief whip and held the position of Minister of State in Higher Education and Industry in the Naveen Patnaik government. Ananta was pitching for his son for the Bhograi seat but the party preferred a new candidate for the seat.

Today, the Opposition BJP also announced candidates for eight assembly seats featuring the names of four former BJD leaders, including sitting MLA from Hindol Seemarani Nayak from the same constituency, sitting MLA from Chilika Prashant Jagdev from Khurda, actor-politician Arindam Roy from Salepur, and Geetanjali Sethy from Kendrapara.

The BJP had declared candidates for 140 Assembly seats and is yet to finalise the candidates for the remaining seven Assembly seats.

Similarly, the Congress has named candidates for 143 Assembly seats and still needs to declare candidates for the remaining four assembly seats.