BJD president and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik on Friday released the third list of candidates for the upcoming 2024 Assembly elections.
While announcing the names of candidates, Patnaik said that Sudarshan Haripal has been named BJD candidate for Rengali Assembly constituency.
Here is list of BJD Candidates for the Assembly Seats
Rengali: Sudarshan Haripal
Rourkela: Sarada P Nayak
Biramitrapur: Rohit J Tirkey
Keonjhar: Meena Majhi
Rairangpur: Raisin Murmu
Balasore: Swarup Das
Barabati-Cuttack: Prakash Behera
Salipur: Prasant Behera
Jayadev: Naba Kishore Mallik
Senior journalist Akshay Sahu said, “The BJD only released candidates for 9 Assembly seats. It shows that the ruling party is under tremendous pressure over the selection of candidates and distributing tickets. If the party doesn’t do so, then the exodus of leaders will certainly increase.”
According to Sahu, Prakash Behera has been roped in by the BJD for the Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency. It will be a challenge for Prakash Behera to contest the polls from Barabati-Cuttack seat after leaving his home turf of Salipur, he added.
The Barabati-Cuttack seat was claimed by Congress candidate Mohammad Moquim in the last elections.
Prakash Behera had recently joined the BJD after quitting BJP.
In his reaction, Prakash Behera said, “There was discussion with the BJD leaders in this regard. In elections there are challenges. I am hopeful that with BJD’s development agenda and CM’s clean image, we will mount a good fight.”
When asked if he was not keen to contest from Salipur, Prakash said that the decision was left to the party high command.