Ahead of the crucial 2024 elections, major political parties including BJP, BJD and Congress have adopted a wait-and-watch policy and buying time to announce candidates for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. Amid this, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Sarat Pattnayak on Monday said that the party will announce its candidates very soon.
“The screening and Central Election Committee (CEC) meeting has been held and the Congress will soon announce its candidates for both Assembly and Lok Sabha seats in Odisha,” said Pattnayak.
Sources said that the Congress may announce the first phase list by tomorrow evening. The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president has reportedly submitted the list of candidates to the CEC.
It is unclear whether the Congress will release the entire list of candidates for all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats or it will be done in a phased manner.
Earlier, the Congress leaders had stated that the party would release its candidates’ list by first week of March. However, there was a delay in Congress strategy following speculations in Odisha regarding BJD-BJP alliance which warmed up political activities in the state for a long time.
Later, it was cleared that both BJP and BJD will fight the upcoming 2024 elections alone.
It is pertinent to mention here that that the BJD has announced its candidates list for 72 Assembly and 9 Lok Sabha seats out of 147 and 21 constituencies respectively.
The BJP, on the other hand, has announced candidates for all the 21 Lok Sabha seats but the party is yet to announce its candidates for the 147 Assembly constituencies.