2019 Elections: Odisha Congress Continues To Put Faith In Family

Bhubaneswar: Family often comes first when it comes to distribution of tickets for Assembly or Lok Sabha seats and the trend continues in Odisha, particularly in the Congress.

Congress leader and former chief minister Hemananda Biswal’s younger daughter, Amita Biswal, featured in the second list of Congress candidates and will contest the Assembly polls from Sundargarh. Hemananda’s other daughter, Sunita, too, is a candidate but on a BJD ticket. She joined the party recently. The BJD has fielded Sunita from Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency to take on sitting MP Jual Oram of the BJP and George Tirkey of the Congress. Hemananda had finished third behind Jual and Dilip Tirkey of the BJD in 2014.

In a similar manner, announcement of candidature for two Lok Sabha seats, on Friday, has strengthened the son-rise phenomena in the Odisha Congress. The party has fielded Samarendra Mishra, son of senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra, from Balangir, and Saptagiri Ullaka, son of Ramachandra Ulaka, from Koraput (ST).

While Bhakta Charan Das is the party’s nominee for Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat, his son Sagar Pratap Das has got the ticket for Bhawanipatna Assembly constituency.

Speculation is rife that the Congress may field more father-son teams and names of OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik and senior leader Ananta Sethi are being widely discussed in political circles.

Sangram Jena, son of former state Congress president Jayadev Jena, who is contesting from Anandapur Assembly seat, is also being considered.