BJD give tickets to Marndi couple, BJP to Singhdeo couple in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has given ticket to the Marndi couple to contest from the tribal-dominated Mayurbhanj district while the opposition BJP has fielded the Singhdeo couple from western Odisha's Bolangir district for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.

Odisha's Revenue minister Sudam Marndi has been fielded by the BJD from the Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat while his wife Ranjita Marndi will be the regional outfit's nominee from the Bangirposi assembly segment.

The 56-year-old tribal leader's Assembly seat Bangirposi has been given to his wife, who took voluntary retirement from government service two months ago to contest from the seat on the BJD ticket.

Sudam Marndi has been elected to the Odisha Assembly for five times and once to the Lok Sabha.

On Monday, BJD president Naveen Patnaik named Marndi's wife Ranjita Marndi as the party candidate from the Bangirposi assembly segment which is presently represented by her husband.

The BJD president has mostly adopted the 'one family one ticket' policy while distributing tickets among aspirants, but the Marndis are the lone exception. 'They were given tickets under certain political compulsion,' a party leader said.

Sources in the BJD said that there were as many as 10,000 aspirants for 168 party tickets (147 for assembly and 21 for Lok Sabha) for the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

The opposition BJP has also given party ticket to the Singhdeo couple from the Bolangir district.

The saffron party has re-nominated its Bolangir MP Sangeeta Kumari Singhdeo for the same Lok Sabha seat while her husband and senior party leader KV Singhdeo has been fielded from the Patnagarh assembly segment.

Sangeeta has been elected from the Bolangir Lok Sabha seat four times in the past.

The Singhdeos hail from the Bolangir royal family.

Though Congress has not given party tickets to any couple, the party has given ticket to a father and son and a father and daughter to contest the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha.

While Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee campaign committee chairman and senior leader Bhakta Charan Das has been nominated from the Narla assembly segment, his son Sagar is the Congress candidate from the Bhawanipatna assembly seat.

The Congress has nominated Bhujabal Majhi as the party candidate from the Nabarangpur Lok Sabha constituency and his daughter Dr Lipika Majhi from the Dabugam assembly segment.