The Congress on Saturday has announced its next list of candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats in Odisha.
The party has fielded Srikant Kumar Jena for Balasore while Yasir Nawaz has been named as the party candidate for the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency.
Here is the complete list of LS candidates
Keonjhar(ST) -- Mohan Hembram
Bhadrak(SC)- Anant Prasad Sethi
Jajpur(SC) -- Anchal Das
Dhenkanal -- Sashmita Behera
Kendrapara – Sidharth Swarup Das
Jagatsinghpur(SC) – Rabindra Kumar Sethi
Puri -- Sucharita Mohanty
Bhubaneswar -- Yasir Nawaz
The party had earlier announced its candidates for eight Lok Sabha seats while candidates for four more parliamentary seats are yet to be announced.
Surprisingly, the Congress has given a chance to a young and new face like Yasir Nawaz to counter BJP stalwart Aparajita Sarangi and BJD candidate Manmath Routray. Yasir has been a known face for leading agitations over various issues in Bhubaneswar.
Yasir Nwas said, "The party has reposed faith in me. I thank all the top leaders of my party for giving me a chance to fight the poll.”
However, the grand old party has filed its veteran and former MP, Srikant Jena in Balasore to take on BJP’s Pratap Sarangi and BJD’s Lekhashree Samantsinghar.
Mohan Hembram, Congress candidate for the Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat said, “I thank all the party leaders, PCC chief Sarat Pattanayak, and Niranjan Patnaik. Last time, I had little time. This time, I have ample time. I am in contact with party workers. My fight will be against injustice, unemployment and farmers' plight. There is a wave of change and Rahul Gandhi’s Nyay Yatra has made its impact on people.”
Congress candidate for the Jajpur LS seat, Anchal Das, who is pitted against BJP's Rabindra Behera and BJD's Sarmistha Sethi, said "After 25 years, I was given a chance to contest. Jajpur people blessed me in 1996. There is no development and people have realised it.”
Thanking all top leaders of the party, Anant Prasad Sethi said, "Congress has reposed faith in me. I have been in politics for the last 40 years. I have been given a chance to serve the people of Bhadrak. As far as I know, people want a change. People wanted me to fight the poll.”
The veteran Congress leader will take on BJP candidate Abhimanyu Sethi and BJD's Manjulata Mandal in the Bhadrak Lok Sabha seat.