Odisha Elections: Naveen Patnaik Files Nomination For Hinjili After Offering Prayers At Tara Tarini

Chattrapur: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday filed nomination papers for Hinjili Assembly seat in Ganjam district from where he will be seeking re-election for the sixth term.

According to sources, Naveen landed at a temporary helipad at Narasinghpur Chhak around 11.05 am and then headed in a carcade with large number of supporters to Tara Tarini temple, the presiding deities of Ganjam near Purushottampur. After offering prayers at the shrine, which has been transformed under 5T initiative, Naveen accompanied by 5T Chairman VK Pandian, senior party leaders and workers reached the sub-collector office here and submitted his papers.

Hinjili, which falls under Aska parliamentary seat, will go to polls on May 20. Naveen too kicked off the party campaign for upcoming elections from Hinjili and Sheragada on April 24.

Along with Hinjli, the CM will also be contesting from Kantabanji in Balangir district.

He had won the Hinjli seat for the first time in 2000 by a margin of 29,826 votes. In 2004, his winning margin increased to 42,642 and in the 2009 and 2014 elections, it went up to 61,773 and 76,586, respectively. In 2019, he won the seat by a margin of 60,160 votes. In all these years, his vote share has never dropped below 65%. The BJD MP candidate from Aska also gets maximum lead from Hinjli among the 7 Assembly segments.

In 2019, BJD had won 12 seats and Congress 1 in Ganjam district.