BJP announces candidates for 2 Lok Sabha, 9 Assembly seats in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced candidates for two Lok Sabha and nine Assembly seats in Odisha today.

As per the list, Kharavela Swain, who rejoined the party on Monday, will contest from the Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, while Prakash Mishra will fight from the Cuttack parliamentary constituency. Swain, who was elected to the Lok Sabha thrice as a BJP member, formally rejoined the BJP here.

"Inspired by the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, I rejoined the BJP to dethrone the corrupt and inefficient BJD government in Odisha," said Kharavela Swain.

Similarly, former Odisha DGP and former CRPF DGP, Prakash Mishra, had joined the BJP on Sunday.

Among the nine Assembly seats declared on Monday is Rishabh Nanda, son of BJD's Rajya Sabha member Prashant Nanda who will fight from the Begunia assembly segment on a BJP ticket. Rishabh too has recently joined the party.

Others include Dinesh Jain from Jharsuguda, Debendra Mahapatro from Rairakhol, Badrinarayan Dhal from Bhandaripokhari, Pradeip Nayak from Bhadrak, Debanarayan Pradhan from Phulbani, Samapad Swain from Paradeep, Narendra Nayak from Jayadev and Biswaranjan Jena from Jatani.

BJP has, so far, declared candidates for 17 Lok Sabha seats and 130 Assembly segments.

Odisha will have Lok Sabha and Assembly polls simultaneously in four phases. The state has 21 seats and 147 seats, respectively, in both these Houses.