Naveen Patnaik, the chief minister of Odisha, plans to contest for two assembly seats

In addition to his customary Hinjili seat in Ganjam district, BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will run from the Kantabanji assembly constituency in Bolangir district in Western Odisha.

Patnaik personally made this announcement on Wednesday when he unveiled the state’s fifth list of nine candidates for the Assembly elections.

In the 2019 assembly elections, Patnaik ran for two seats as well. His victories were from the Hinjili and Bijepur assembly segments in the western Odisha district of Bargarh. But Patnaik kept the Hinjili seat and eventually resigned from Bijepur.

Patnaik announced nine BJD candidates, four of them were turncoats and six of whom were women. Four incumbent MLAs have been sacked by the party: Rajnikant Singh (Angul), Samir Ranjan Dash (Nimapara), Purna Chandra Baka (Chitrakonda), and Kishore Chandra Naik (Kuchinda).

In addition, Patnaik has nominated and rewarded four turncoats to run in the assembly elections. Arundhati Devi (Deogarh), Rajendra Kumar Chhatria (Kuchinda), Dillip Kumar Nayak (Nimapara), and Laxmipriya Nayak (Chitrakonda) were among them.

Laxmipriya Nayak of Chitrakonda, Barsa Singh Bariha of Padampur, Arundhati Devi of Deogarh, Sanjukta Singh of Angul, Sulkhnsa Gitanajali Devi of Samakhemundi, and Dr. Indira Nanda of Jeypore are the six female candidates.

Rajanikant Singh, the Angul MLA, was denied a party ticket; nonetheless, BJD nominated his wife, Sanjukta Singh, from the same seat. Rabi Nanda, an ex-MLA and former minister, was also refused a party ticket. The BJD ticket for the Jeypore assembly sector in the Koraput district was obtained by his spouse, Dr. Indira Nanda.

In the Sanakhemundi assembly segment, Patnaik also put forth S Gitanajali Devi, who is the daughter of former MLA Nandini Devi.

The president of BJD also switched two leaders’ candidacies. Prasanna Acharya will run from Rairakhol, while Rairakhol MLA Rohit Pujari has been nominated from the Sambalpur assembly seat.

With this, the BJD has revealed the identities of 126 candidates—or 147 assembly segments—so far in Odisha.