BJD announces more candidates; rewards Lekhashree with Balasore LS ticket

Bhubaneswar: Putting all speculations to rest, the ruling Biju Janata Dal on Thursday named Lekhashree Samantsinghar as its candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha constituency for the upcoming elections. Lekhashree was apparently rewarded after she quit Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and joined BJD.

BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who announced her candidature through a video message, also declared nine MLA candidates of the party.

Lekhashree has been pitted by the regional party against veteran BJP leader and sitting MP from Balasore Pratap Chandra Sarangi, also a former Union Minister. With her nomination, the ruling BJD has fielded women candidates in 33 per cent seats in Lok Sabha, a trend which the party had started in 2019.

With this, the ruling BJD has announced the names of its nominees for all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The regional party had earlier declared 20 MP candidates.

9 Assembly Candidates:

• Laxmipur–Prabhu Jani
• Paradip—Gitanjali Routray
• Sambalpur—Prasanna Acharya
• Rairakhol—Rohit Pujari
• Telkoi—Madhab Sardar
• Talcher—Braja Kishore Pradhan
• Narla—Manorama Mohanty
• Bhubaneswar Central—Ananta Narayan Jena
• Baliguda–Chakramani Kanhar

The regional party has changed its candidate for Paradip and fielded Gitanjali Routray, who is the wife of the sitting MLA Sambit Routray. Gitanjali, also daughter-in-law of veteran leader late Damodar Rout, thanked Naveen Patnaik for reposing faith in her to fight the elections.

She said her father-in-law was elected from the seat and has done a lot of development for the area while her husband has also served the people in the constituency. Similarly, the ruling party has nominated a new face in Narla Assembly seat. It has fielded Manorama Mohanty in place of Bhupinder Singh. Manorama has been a block chairperson twice.