Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Friday announced Santosh Khatua as its candidate for the last remaining Assembly seat, Nilagiri, in Odisha.
Khatua was given the ticket a day after he quit the BJD after the regional party nominated sitting MLA Sukanta Nayak from Nilagiri. Nayak had won the Nilagiri seat twice in 2014 and 2019. He won the 2014 elections as a BJD candidate but contested the last election on BJP ticket and defeated Khatua by a margin of 1,577 votes. He returned to the Conch fold on March 31.
On Thursday, the saffron party announced candidates for six Assembly seats except Nilagiri. It had kept the announcement on hold apparently keeping an eye on who the BJD would field from the seat so as to poach on the other aspirant, sources said.
With this, Nayak and Khatua will again cross swords in the upcoming election but on different party symbols.
The announcement has also put lid on former MP Kharabela Swain’s ‘seat adjustment’ proposition in which he had urged the BJP leadership to shift the Balasore MP candidate Pratap Sarangi to Nilagiri and field him from the parliamentary seat instead, after the initial outburst to contest as an independent.