Congress announces candidates for Odisha Lok Sabha, Assembly seats 

Congress on Sunday announced candidates for two Lok Sabha seats and eight Assembly seats in Odisha.

The party fielded Nagendra Pradhan in the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency while Suresh Mohapatra has been nominated for the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat.

The party also announced eight candidates for the Assembly seats in Odisha. Sofia Firdous has been nominated from the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency, while Pratima Mallick has been fielded from the Jagatsinghpur Assembly seat. 

Here is the list of 8 Assembly candidates 

1.    Baripada: Pramod Hembram
2.    Jaleswar: Debi Prasanna Chand
3.    Balasore: Monalisa Lenka
4.    Barchana: Ajay Samal
5.    Pallahara: Fakir Samal
6.    Barabati-Cuttack: Sofia Firdous
7.    Jagatsinghpur: Pratima Mallick
8.    Khandapada: Baijayantimala Mohanty

Speaking to OTV, Nagendra Pradhan said, "There is no challenge. I was an MP from the seat for five years. I am well aware of the problems there. Working for a regional party like BJD has its problems. So, I thought of working with a national party like Congress, the party which played a key role in the freedom struggle of the country. Late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru from this party was the architect of modern India. There is a good scope to work here.”

On being nominated for the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly seat, Sofia Firdous said, "I thank the entire Congress family and the people of Cuttack as I have been chosen as the nominee for the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly seat. People have faith in me as my father, as a legislator, has done a lot of work. I will carry forward our developmental activities.”

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She added, "I have been working in the field with my father since 2014 and during the Covid pandemic we served people. People of Congress have worked with me.”