The Congress on Saturday announced the names of candidates for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Odisha.
The party announced names of candidates for 3 Lok Sabha seats and 16 Assembly seats in Odisha.
Here is the list of candidates for Lok Sabha seats:
Sambalpur:Dulal Chandra Pradhan
Keonjhar: Binod Bihari Nayak
Aska: Debokanta Sharma
Below is the list of party candidates for Assembly seats
Jharsuguda: Amita Biswal
Badasahi: Kshirod Chandra Patra
Sukinda: Bibhu Bushan Rout
Kantamal: Sarat Kumar Pradhan
Kendrapara: Shipra Mallick
Rajanagar: Ashok Pratihari
Mahakalapada: Loknath Moharathy
Nimapara: Siddharth Routray
Pipili: Gyan Ranjan Patnaik
Jayadev: Krushna Sagaria
Khurda: Sonali Sahoo
Chilika: Pradeep Kumar Swain
Khandapada: Manoj Kumar Pradhan
Daspalla: Nakul Nayak
Kabisuryanagar: Sanjaya Kumar Mandal
Gopalpur: Shayam Sahu
Expressing her happiness for being nominated for the Kendrapara Assembly seat, Shipra Mallick said, “We will definitely come out victorious. My focus will be to bring a change and strengthen the organisation of the nation’s oldest party.”
Similarly, a delighted Ashok Pratihari, who has been fielded from the Rajnagar Assembly seat, said, “I am grateful to the Congress leaders for reposing faith in me. If I am elected, my first step will be to work for the development of farmers. I will ensure irrigation in all non-irrigated lands in Rajnagar."
On getting the ticket for the Nimapara Assembly constituency instead of the Jatani constituency, Siddharth Routray said, “We will win in Jatani as well as in Nimapara. I have been moving around on a bicycle in Nimapara for the last six months. I have visited each and every house twice. I was in Jatani to look for an appropriate candidate for the seat.”
Tension erupts at Congress Bhawan
Meanwhile, the exclusion of certain Congress leaders from the list irked the youth Congress members who laid siege to Congress Bhawan and locked it up.
“Injustice has been meted out to yuva Congress. We had asked for only 10 tickets out of 147. PCC chief Sarat Pattanayak has not given a single ticket to us. They have given tickets to those who were imported from other parties and those who were speaking negatively about PRAGAMAN. But they ignored those who had shed blood for the party and were beaten up by the police. We will close the Bhawan till the arrival of Sarat Pattanayak,” said an agitating member of the youth Congress.