Six women among nine BJD candidates announced by Naveen Patnaik

Odisha Chief Minister and the Biju Janata Dal BJD chief Naveen Patnaik announced nine Biju Janata Dal BJD candidates including six women and four turncoats for the Assembly elections 2024Naveen Patnaik made the announcement on Wednesday when he released the fifth list of nine candidates for the state Assembly electionsThe party has dropped four sitting MLAs Purna Chandra Baka Chitrakonda Kishore Chandra Naik Kuchinda Rajnikant Singh Angul and Samir Ranjan Dash NimaparaNaveen Patnaik will run in both the Kantabanji assembly constituency in Bolangir district Western Odisha and his customary Hinjili seat in Ganjam for the Assembly elections 2024 reported the PTINaveen Patnaik contested two seats in the 2019 assembly elections He won both the Hinjili and Bijepur assembly segments in Bargarh district western Odisha Patnaik later resigned from Bijepur and kept his Hinjili seat according to the PTINaveen Patnaik has also rewarded four turncoats and nominated them to contest the assembly polls They include Arundhati Devi Deogarh Dillip Kumar Nayak Nimapara Rajendra Kumar Chhatria Kuchinda and Laxmipriya Nayak Chitrakonda the news agency reported on ThursdayAccording to the PTI the six women candidates are Laxmipriya Nayak Chitrakonda Barsa Singh Bariha Padampur Arundhati Devi Deogarh Sanjukta Singh Angul Sulkhnsa Gitanajali Devi Samakhemundi and Dr Indira Nanda JeyporeWhile denying party ticket to Angul MLA Rajanikant Singh BJD nominated his wife Sanjukta Singh from the same seat Former minister and exMLA Rabi Nanda was also denied party ticket His wife Dr Indira Nanda got the BJD ticket for the Jeypore assembly segment in Koraput district as per the PTINaveen Patnaik also nominated S Gitanajali Devi daughter of former MLA Nandini Devi in Sanakhemundi assembly segmentThe BJD president also interchanged the candidature of two leaders Rairakhol MLA Rohit Pujari has been nominated from the Sambalpur assembly segment while Prasanna Acharya will contest from RairakholThe BJD has so far announced the names of 126 candidates out of the total 147 assembly segments in OdishaMeanwhile with the Election Commission of India issuing notification for the simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and Odisha Assembly the nomination paper filing process started ThursdayThe candidates can file nomination papers for Odisharsquos four Lok Sabha constituencies and 28 assembly segments between 11am and 3pm from April 18 to April 25 the notification saidVoting will be held May 13 in four Lok Sabha seats ndash Berhampur Nabarangpur ST Kalahandi and Koraput ST Polling for the 28 assembly segments under the four Parliamentary constituencies will also be held on the same daywith PTI inputs