Bhubaneswar, March 8: The BJP today declared the list of its candidates for five Lok Sabha and 57 Assembly seats in the state.
The Lok Sabha candidates are Pratap Sarangi (Balasore), Subhash Chouhan (Bargarh), Shiba Shankar Ulaka (Koraput), Pradipta Nayak ((Kalahandi) and Nepul Raghunath Murmu (Mayurbhanj).
The announcement brings to an end of speculation about Utkal Bharat chief Kharvela Swain contesting the Balasore seat with BJP support. The chances of a pact between the two parties have evaporated with this.
Earlier, the party had declared candidates for six Lok Sabha seats, including Sundargarh (ST) (Jual Oram), Sambalpur (Suresh Pujari), Dhenkanal (Rudra Narayan Pani), Balangir (Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo), Nabarangpur (ST) (Parsuram Majhi), Jagatsinghpur (SC) (Baidhar Mallik).
Of the 57 candidates, the most prominent are state BJP chief K.V. Singh Deo, who will contest from Patnaigarh, his traditional seat, and senior leader, Dilip Ray, who will try his luck from Rourkela, which he has represented in the past.
While BJP legislature party leader Jaynarayan Mishra will contest from Sambalpur, former minister Manmohan Samal will stake his claim to the Chandbali seat. Others are Cuttack Sadar-Dilip Mallick, Khadial-Hitesh Bagarti, Korei-Sanchita Mohanty, Choudwar-Cuttack-Nayan Kishore Mohanty, Keonjhar-Mohan Majhi, Nuapada-Basant Panda, Dhenkanal-Krushna Chandra Patra, Parjang-Bibhuti Pradhan, Talcher-Kalandi Samal, Angul-Minaketan Amat, Sonepur-Pramod Mohapatra, Balangir-Basudev Pati, Titlagarh-Mahendra Thakur, Kantabanji-Laxman Bag and Nabarangpur-Birendra Pujari.
While Dabugan will see Sashidhara Majhi contesting, the party has decided to field Padmanav Majhi from Kotapad and Karendra Majhi from Baliguda, Debanarayan Pradhan from Phulbani, Manoj Behera from Daspalla, Susant Mallick from Niali, Bibhuti Harichandan from Chilika, Surama Padhi from Ranpur, Dharanidhar Behera from Chatrapur and Bibhuti Jena from Gopalpur.
On Mohana seat the BJP will field Bharat Paika followed by Kaliram Majhi (Rayagada), Jayaram Garada (Koraput), Sahadeb Khakha (Sundergarh), Shankar Oram (Birmitrapur), Upendra Pradhan (Rajgangpur), Luthar Oram (Bonai), Rabi Nayak (Kuchninda), Nauri Nayak (Rengali), Subhas Panigrahi (Debgarh) and Alok Sethi (Anandpur).
While Raghunath Hembram will contest from Jashipur, former minister Draupadi Murmu will fight from Rairangpur, Purusottam Nayak from Bagriposi, Rajkishore Das from Moroda, Madan Mohan Dutta from Balasore, Gobinda Das from Remuna, Bishnu Sethi from Dhamnagar, Ashwini Sarangi from Bargarh, Jagabandhu Behera from Raghunathpalli, Dinabandhu Pati from Basudevpur, Laxmidhar Behera from Hindol, Ashok Mohanty from Pallahara, Pratap Mishra from Jagatsinghpur, Prabhati Parida from Nimapara, Krushna Panda from Puri, Amruta Jena from Brahmagiri and Jatin Mohanty from Begunia.
