Former Indian Hockey captain Dilip Tirkey and popular Odia film actor Sidhanta Mohapatra have figured in the ruling BJD’s first list of candidates for five Lok Sabha and 30 Assembly seats in Odisha.
The president of the regional outfit and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who announced the first list on Wednesday evening, said that the party candidates for rest of the parliament and Assembly seats will be declared very shortly. The elections in the eastern state for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly seats are scheduled between April 10 and 17.
Both Tirkey and Mohapatra, however, are sitting MPs. While the former hockey star is currently a Rajya Sabha member, the film actor was elected to the Lok Sabha in 2009 on a BJD ticket. He will once again be contesting the polls from politically significant southern Odisha Berhampur constituency.
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