Odisha Elections 2024: Congress Likely To Announce Lok Sabha, Assembly Candidates Tomorrow

Bhubaneswar: As major political parties appear to be adopting a cautions approach in announcing their candidates for the upcoming elections in Odisha, Congress on Monday said it will release the list of its nominees very soon.

While the ruling Biju Janta Dal (BJD) and man opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have announced their candidates for some of the seats, Congress is yet to declare any name.

With the political parties apparently buying time, Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Sarat Pattnayak said that the grand old party will announce its candidates very soon. The list is ready and the party is all set to announce the candidates after final approval, he said.

Stating that meetings of the screening and Central Election Committee (CEC) of the party have been held, he said Congress will soon announce its candidates for both Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha.

In all probability, the party may announce the list of some candidates in the first phase by Tuesday evening, he said. The state Congress has already submitted the list of candidates to the CEC for final approval.

It is not clear whether Congress will release the entire list of candidates for all the Assembly and Lok Sabha seats or it will be done in a phased manner.

Though Congress leaders had earlier stated that the party would release the candidates’ list by first week of March, there was a delay in strategy following speculations about BJD-BJP alliance for the upcoming polls in the state. However, the suspense over BJD-BJP alliance came to an end after the two parties announced their decision to fight the elections alone without forging any form of understanding.

It may be noted here that BJD has announced its candidates list for 72 Assembly and 15 Lok Sabha seats out of 147 and 21 constituencies respectively.

The BJP, on the other hand, has announced candidates for all the 21 Lok Sabha seats but the party is yet to declare candidates for any Assembly constituency.