The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday declared the names for the upcoming Odisha Assembly elections 2024. It has announced 21 more candidates and fielded Dilip Ray from Rourkela. Ray will fight against Odisha's Labour Minister and BJD candidate Sarada Nayak from the Rourkela seat.
Earlier the BJP re-nominated 17 of its 22 sitting MLAs in Odisha while announcing the list of candidates for 112 of the 147 Assembly constituencies in the state. The party dropped one legislator, Lalitendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, from Brahmagiri constituency in Puri district and fielded his niece Upasana from there.
Two women candidates — Surama Padhi and Sanjali Murmu (Bangirposi) - also figure in the list of 21 candidates released by the BJP.
Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal has fielded two octogenarian candidates for the state Assembly elections which will be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls. The BJD has fielded over 80-year-old Ramesh Chandra Chyaupatnaik from the Berhampur assembly seat in Ganjam district, from where he was elected five times in a row till 2014. In the last election, he did not contest the election as the party denied ticket to him Chyaupatnaik is the oldest candidate of the BJD in the state so far after the ruling party declared his candidature. The BJD has so far announced candidates for 108 of the 147 assembly seats and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state.
