Bhubaneswar: The BJP has re-nominated 17 of its 22 sitting MLAs in Odisha while announcing the list of candidates for 112 of the 147 assembly constituencies in the state. The party dropped one legislator, Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, from Brahmagiri constituency in Puri district and fielded his niece Upasana from the seat.
The candidates of three other seats where the party has MLAs in the outgoing assembly, were not announced during the day.
Rairangpur MLA Naba Charan Majhi has been fielded as an MP candidate from the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat.
The party fielded eight women contestants including Sundergarh MLA Kusum Tete till now.
Five BJD turncoats were also named as BJP candidates.
The party also nominated former Income Tax Commissioner Sambit Tripathy in Badamba and actor-turned-politician Akash Das Nayak in Korei.
Kalahandi MP Basant Kumar Panda's son Abhinandan will contest from Nuapada.
According to the list, BJP state president Manmohan Samal will contest from Chandbali in Bhadrak district while sitting MP from Bargarh Suresh Pujari will from Brajarajnagar. Mr Pujari was denied the party ticket for contesting the Lok Sabha polls this time.
The BJP has fielded Sisir Mishra against Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from the Hinjili Assembly constituency while former BJD MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh will contest against former minister and sitting MLA Arun Kumar Sahoo in the Nayagarh assembly seat.
Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Assembly Jaynarayan Mishra will contest from his traditional Sambalpur assembly seat. Former minister and ex-BJP state president KV Singhdeo will contest from Patnagarh assembly seat in Bolangir district. His wife Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo is BJP candidate for the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat.
Five turncoats from BJD, Arabinda Dhali, Akash Das Nayak, Siddhant Mohapatra, Purna Chandra Sethi and Priyadarshi Mishra, were given BJP tickets.
Arabinda Dhali will fight from the Jayadev assembly segment in Khurda district.
Former MLA Purna Chandra Sethi, who quit BJD and joined the BJP on March 26, will contest from Khallikote assembly seat. He had won two consecutive elections from the constituency in 2009 and 2014 but was denied a ticket in 2019.
While the BJP youth leader Tankadhar Tripathy will fight the Assembly polls from Jharsuguda, MLA Kusum Tete will contest from Sundargarh Assembly seat and Biswaranjan Badajena from Jatni.
Jagannath Pradhan has been fielded from Bhubaneswar Central, Babu Singh from Bhubaneswar Ekamra and Prithiviraj Harichandan from Chilika Assembly seat.
The party also selected sitting MLA Suryabanshi Suraj – son of late leader Bishnu Sethi -- from Dhamnagar Assembly seat, Padmalochan Panda from Simulia, Rajendra Das from Soro, Gobinda Chandra Das from Remuna, Manas Kumar Dutta from Balasore, Braja Pradhan from Jaleswar, Irasis Acharya from Bhatli.
Senior BJP leader Mohan Majhi ridiculed the ruling BJD over its recent statement that the saffron party was unable to find candidates for all the 147 assembly seats.
"Now, the BJP has announced the names of 112 candidates, which is 40 more than the BJD's announced candidates of 72. We have strong candidates in all the assembly and Lok Sabha seats," Mr Majhi told reporters.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)