Bhubaneswar: KP’s family and JB’s kid are on the Cong’s second list for the Assembly elections
The names of 75 candidates for the next Odisha Assembly elections were released by the Congress on Sunday. Among them are Pruthvi Ballav Patnaik, the son of former chief minister J B Patnaik, and Sushmita Singh Deo, a cousin of former Union minister K. P Singhdeo.
Nine women are on the party’s second list of 75 candidates for the Assembly elections, which were released today.
The list, which includes a few former MLAs and numerous new faces, was signed by K C Venugopal, general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC). Three Assembly seats—Talsara, Baliguda, and Kabisuryanagar—saw new candidates.
Debendra Bhitaria took the for former Indian Hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey in Talsara, while Upendra Pradhan took over for Surada Pradhan in Baliguda. In Kabisuryanagar, Bipin Bihari Swain succeeded Chiranjeevi Bisoyi in a similar manner.
Debasmita Sharma, the daughter of former Aul MLA Debendra Sharma, has been nominated in lieu of her father. Asit Patnaik has been nominated for Bhadrak. He is the son of former MLA Jugal Patnaik, who recently resigned from the BJD and joined the Congress.
The party made the decision to remove Suresh Routray and Adhiraj Panigrahi, two current MLAs, off the list of contenders. Prior to joining BJD, Khariar lawmaker Panigrahi resigned from the party and proclaimed his intention to not run in the 2024 elections, while Jatni MLA Routray had made the same announcement. The BJD has put him up as a candidate from Khariar.
Former presidents of the Odisha Pradesh Congress (OPCC), Niranjan Patnaik and Jaydev Jena, among others, will run from the Anandapur Assembly seat in Bhandaripokhari and the Bhandaripokhari Assembly seat, respectively. Debasish Pattnaik, a former MLA, will run in the Banki Assembly segment. Rajanikanta Padhi, the daughter of BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, is the Congress’ nominee from Hinjili.
Out of the 147 candidates in the State, the Congress has named 119 of them with this declaration. CPI(M) and JMM have been used to modify two seats.
