The BJP flag.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The BJP on Tuesday announced a list of candidates for the Assembly elections in Odisha.
The list of 112 names had several names of Biju Janata Dal turncoats. Former MP and actor Siddhant Mohapatra, sitting MLA Arabinda Dhali, former MLAs Akash Das Nayak, Priyadarshi Mishra, Rajendra Das, Purna Chandra Sethi and K Anil Kumar are among those who had left the BJD recently, that the BJP has fielded .
Among the turncoats, the BJP has fielded Mohapatra, an actor, from Digapahandi, and Nayak, also an actor, from the Korei seat.
Dhali has been fielded from the Jayadev seat, Mishra from Bhubaneswar-North, Das from Soro, Sethi from Khallikote and Kumar from Berhampur.
The BJP has also fielded its state president Manmohan Samal from the Chandabali segment, a seat from where he had lost in 2019 and in 2014. Leader of Opposition and MLA Jaynarayan Mishra will contest from the Sambalpur assembly seat.
To take on CM Naveen Patnaik, the BJP has fielded Sisir Mishra as its candidate from Hinjili.
The state will vote for its 147-member assembly along with the Lok Sabha elections for the 21 seats simultaneously. Elections will be held in the state in four phases, starting on May 13 and ending on June 1.
In the 2019 assembly, the BJD won 112 seats, and Naveen Patnaik had become the chief minister for the fifth consecutive term since 2000.
The BJP had won 23 seats, while the Congress won 9 seats. Among the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state, the BJD had won 12 seats, the BJP won 8 seats and the Congress 1 seat.