BJP announces names of 21 Assembly candidates, Dilip Ray to contest from Rourkela

Bhubaneswar: The BJP on Tuesday released the names of 21 candidates for the Odisha Assembly elections, including that of former Union Coal Minister Dilip Ray.

While releasing the second list of candidates for the Odisha Assembly elections, the party nominated Ray from the Rourkela assembly seat.

At least five turncoats who recently joined the BJP after quitting the BJD also got BJP tickets.

They are Amarndra Dash (Jagatsinghpur), Dambaru Sisa (Chitrakonda), Kalilash Kulesika (Laxmipur), Bhadav Hansdah (Saraskana) and Jagannath Nudruka (Bissam Katak).

Ray will fight against Odisha's Labour Minister and BJD candidate Sarada Nayak from the Rourkela seat.

The party also changed two candidates who were named in the previous list. Surama Padhi was replaced by Tapas Ranjan Martha in the Ranpur assembly segment while the party nominated Chaitanya Nandibali in place of Chaitanya Hantal in the Pottangi assembly segment.

Two women candidates - Surama Padhi and Sanjali Murmu (Bangirposi) - also figure in the list of 21 candidates released by the BJP.

With this, the BJP has so far announced the names of 131 candidates out of 147 assembly segments in Odisha. The party had earlier released the names of candidates for all the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

Odisha Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state will be held simultaneously in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.