Bhubaneswar: BJD President & Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has announced the candidates for 27 Assembly and 5 Lok Sabha seats. In the second phase announcement, the ruling party has denied tickets to seven sitting MLAs and 2 MPs and fielded new candidates.
Of the 7 MLAs and 2 MPs denied tickets, senior BJD leader Pratap Jena’s son, Ankit Pratap Jena has secured the party ticket to contest for the Mahanga assembly seat and Pritinanda Kanungo, wife of Morada MLA Raj Kishore Das, will be contesting for the Morada assembly seat.
The other five MLAs, who have been replaced with new candidates, are Ramesh Chandra Sai from Athmalik, Parshuram Dhada from Soro, Pritam Padhi from Pottangi, Angad Kanhar from Phulbani and Bijay Shankar Das from Tirtol. All of them were elected to the assembly for the first time. Similarly, Keonjhar MP Chandrani Murmu and Berhampur MP Chandrashekhar Sahu have failed to secure party tickets.
The BJD has fielded former Congress MLA Dhanurjay Siddu from the Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat in place of Chandrani Murmu, and former BJP leader Bhrugu Baxipatra in place of Chandrashekhar Sahu. Similarly, Madhab Dhada has been selected to contest for the Soro assembly seat in place of Parashuram Dhada, while Nalinikanta Pradhan replaced Ramesh Sai in Athmalik.
The BJD has fielded Jayshree Kanhar from Phulbani, Ramakant Bhoi from Tirtol and Prafulla Pangi in Pottangi. The conch party’s list of candidates announced in the second phase includes Alka Mohanty from Brajrajnagar, Deepali Das from Jharsuguda, Padmanav Behera from Birmaharajpur, Prasant Muduli from Jagatsinghpur, Susanta Raut from Bhubaneswar-North, Ashok Panda from Bhubaneswar-Ekamra, Surjyamani Baidya from Khallikote and Manjula Swain from Aska.
Similarly, while BJD MPs were denied tickets for Berhampur and Keonjhar, among the 5 LS seats announced in the second phase, Bhadrak’s MP Manjulata Mandal secured the party ticket again. The party has fielded new candidates in the remaining seats i.e. Berhampur, Bolangir, Keonjhar and Bargarh. Bhrugu Baxipatra will contest from the Berhampur LS seat, while  Surendra Singh Bhoi from the Bolangir LS seat
Former Congress MLA Dhanurjay Sidhu is contesting for Lok Sabha in Keonjhar, while Parinita Mishra will be contesting as a new candidate in the Bargarh seat. BJD has announced candidates for 99 assembly seats and 20 Lok Sabha seats in the second phase.
The BJD is yet to announce its candidates for the remaining one, Balasore Lok Sabha seat and another 48 assembly seats in Odisha.