Bhubaneswar: The battle of ballot is all set to begin with the commencement of the 1st phase polls tomorrow. The voters in Odisha will choose their representatives for four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly constituencies in the first phase, April 11.
All eyes are now on the top candidates of the major political parties whose fate will be sealed by tomorrow evening. Here are the top candidates, heavyweights for the Phase 1 elections in Odisha:
Lok Sabha Assembly Constituencies
Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seat will see a fight among 'Majhis'- Balabhadra Majhi (BJP), Pradeep Majhi (Congress) and Ramesh Chandra Majhi (BJD).
Kalahandi LS seat will see a contest between State BJP president Basant Panda, Congress' Bhakta Charan Das and former minister and BJD candidate Puspendra Singh Deo.
For Berhampur MP seat, BJP's state general secretary Bhrugu Baxipatra will take on former union minister Chandra Sekhar Sahu, who joined the BJD last year. Congress has fielded Chandrasekhar Naidu as its candidate for the LS seat.
BJP's Jayaram Pangi, who will be contesting from Koraput LS seat, is also a prominent MP candidate of the BJP.
Assembly Constituencies
In Bhawanipatna Assembly constituency, former minister Pradipta Nayak of BJP will take on former MLA and BJD candidate Dushmanta Nayak and Congress' Sagar Das. Sagar is the son of senior Congress leader and party candidate for Kalahandi LS seat, Bhakta Charan Das.
Paralakhemundi Assembly seat will witness a triangular fight between K Surya Rao (BJD), ex-MLA K Narayan Rao (BJP) and Kalyani Gajapati (BJD). A tough battle is expected for Jeypore Assembly seat where Rabi Nanda (BJD), Tara Prasad Bahinipati (Congress) and Krushna Chandra Sagaria (BSP) are in the fray.
Meanwhile, BJP has also set high hopes on Pinky Pradhan who will take on minister and BJD MLA candidate from Digapahandi, Surjya Narayan Patro.
Among other prominent leaders of different political parties, Parsuram Majhi (BJP) from Jharigaon, Sadan Nayak (Congress) from Nabarangpur, Manohar Randhari (BJD) and Bhujabal Majhi (Congress) from Dabugaon, Chandrasekhar Majhi (Congress) from Kotpad, Pradeep Panigrahi (BJD) from Gopalpur, Usha Devi (BJD) from Chikiti, Sisir Gamang (BJP) from Gunupur, Lal Bihari Himirika (BJD) from Rayagada, Dibya Sabkar Mishra (BJD) from Junagarh, Bhupinder Singh (BJD) from Narla and Kailash Kulesika (Congress) from Laximipur Assembly seat will be contesting in the first phase polls.