Odisha Congress Announces Former Speaker As Candidate For Brajrajnagar Byelection

Bhubaneswar: With 4 days left for the last date of filing nominations for byelections to Brajrajnagar Assembly constituency in Jharsuguda district, the Congress has announced its candidate.

In order to decide party candidate for the byelection, president of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik had formed a 5-member selection committee. Chairman of the committee and OPCC vice-president Jagneswar Babu along with other committee members including the party’s Jharsuguda district president Bharat Abasti, Sambalpur president Aswini Guru, Sundargarh president Radhamadhav Tripathy and Bargarh MP candidate Pradip Debata visited Jharsuguda on Friday.

The committee members held a meeting at Jagannath temple Kalyan Mandap to select the suitable candidate. It was unanimously decided at the meeting to nominate senior party leader and former Speaker Kishore Patel as the party candidate.

Jharsuguda district committee, town committee and block committee of Congress have welcomed the decision and extended their support to selection of Patel as party candidate for the byelection.

Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja on Saturday told the media that the party has selected Patel as its candidate for Jharsuguda bypoll.

As per the notification of Election Commission, the byelection will be held on May 31. The last date for filing nominations is May 11, while scrutiny of the papers will be held on May 12 and the last date for withdrawal is May 17. The counting has been scheduled for June 3.