Bhubaneswar: The BJD has replaced sitting Jajpur MP Rita Taria with Sasmita Sethi, an OAS officer who recently took voluntary retirement from service.
The BJD has been winning the seat for the last four consecutive elections.
Sasmita was deputy secretary, finance. Party sources said she was asked to quit a few months ago to contest the polls.
She is the wife of Rabi Sethi, also an OAS officer and private secretary to sports minister Chandra Sarathi Behera. He was private secretary to Pranab Prakash Das, when he was the energy minister from 2014 to 2017.
