BJP Springs A Few Surprises As It Names Six More MLA Candidates For Odisha

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Thursday named candidates for six more Assembly seats for upcoming elections in Odisha.

Purna Chandra Mohapatra, party vice-president and noted gynaecologist who was earlier tipped to be Cuttack Lok Sabha candidate, has been named as MLA candidate from Barabati-Cuttack. Actor-turned-politician Anubhav Mohanty, who switched sides to BJP from BJD, was also in the race.

While speculation was rife that sitting Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who has been expelled from BJD, will be the BJP MLA candidate from Ghashipura, the party has named Dr Shambhunath Rout, who was associated with VHP and RSS, from this seat.

The other candidates are Ashish Patra (Bhograi), Umesh Chandra Jena (Bari), Prakash Chandra Ranabijuli (Begunia) and Sudhanshu Nayak (Bhandaripokhari).

There was also speculation that Begunia could be offered to veteran politician Prasanna Patasani if he switches over from BJD to BJP. In Bari, former minister Debasis Nayak, who quit BJD and joined BJP in February, was a contender. The saffron party was also reportedly waiting for sitting MLA Sunanda Das to jump ship after being denied a ticket by the regional outfit since she has a support base there.

With this, the saffron party has announced candidates for 146 Assembly seats, except Nilagiri.

Notably, former MP Kharabela Swain 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. He had won the seat in 1998, 1999 and 2004.