Congress To Announce Final List Of Odisha Candidates by Mid-March

Bhubaneswar: With the Odisha Pradesh Election Committee (OPEC) sending the list of probables for the ensuing Assembly and Lok Sabha elections to the Central Election Committee (CEC) of All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Wednesday, the final list of candidates is expected to be announced in the next 10 days.

According to reliable sources in the Congress, following are the names of the probable candidates for the Lok Sabha elections sent by the OPEC earlier to the CEC:

1. Nabarangpur: Pradip Majhi and Chandrasekhar Majhi
2. Kalahandi: Bhakta Charan Das and Jagannath Patnaik
3. Balangir: Laxman Meher and Samarendra Mishra (son of the leader of the Opposition Narasingha Mishra)
4. Sundargarh: George Tirkey and former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal
5. Koraput: Saptagiri Ullaka, Mary Surin and Purastam Gamang
6. Kandhamal: Manoj Acharya and Chandrasekhar Parida
7. Puri: Amiya Patnaik and Sucharita Mohanty
8. Bargarh: Sanjay Bhoi and Hamid Hussain
9. Cuttack-Panchanan Kanungo/Bijayalaxmi Sahoo
10. Jagatsinghpur: Bibhu Prasad Tarai and two others
11. Jajpur: Manas Jena and Arjun Charan Das
12. Balasore: Nabajyoti Patnaik (son of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik)
13. Kendrapara: Dharanidhar Patnaik and two others
14. Bhadrak: Anant Sethi and two others
15. Sambalpur- Sarat Patnaik/Amar Pradhan
16. Keonjhar-Haramahon Soren/Binita Majhi
17. Dhenkanal-KP Singhdeo

However, the OPEC has not sent the name of its party candidate for Mayurbhanj, Berhampur, Aska and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituencies since it has a seat sharing with the CPI and the JMM.

As decided, the CEC of the AICC will have a meeting in New Delhi on March 11 and is expected to announce the final list of candidates either on March 15 and 16 on the basis of the report of the AICC Screening Committee for Odisha and the AICC.