Odisha: BJP releases 8 more names for Odisha Assembly elections; 4 BJD turncoats get tickets
Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday released the list of candidates for eight more assembly constituencies of Odisha. This list contains names of four persons who recently quit the ruling Biju Janata Dal and joined the saffron party.
While the party fielded Prasanta Kumar Jagadev for the Khurdha seat, Ollywood actor Arindam Roy was named party candidate for the Salipur seat.
The saffron has so far declared 140 names for assembly polls. It is expected to announce the remaining seven names in a day or two, party sources said.
The six candidates include Fakir Mohan Naik (Telkoi), Murali Manohar Sharma (Champua), Rabindra Andia (Basta), Banikalyan Mohanty (Basudevpur). Seemarani Nayak (Hindol), Geetanjali Sethi (Kendrapara).
On being nominated from the Khurda assembly seat, Prasanta Kumar Jagadev expressed his happiness and gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha Aparajita Sarangi.
“The fight for Khurda seat will be one-sided because the ruling party is like a fan without electricity. The BJP will come out victorious. The day when Prasanta Jagadev joined the BJP, the BJD’s fortress in Khurda caved in. I will go to the people with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s clarion call of ‘Viksit Bharat’ and ‘Viksit Odisha,’ Amit Shah’s ‘Is Baar Odisha Main BJP Sarkar;’ and Bhubaneswar MP candidate, Aparajita Sarangi’s ‘Lok Niti and Lok Seva,’” Jagadev said.
elkoi Assembly candidate, Fakir Mohan Naik said, “Even though the BJD has been ruling for the last 25 years, the development seems to have detoured Telkoi. It is lagging behind in road communication, education and health sectors. This is why people have decided to bring in a change. And this change will start from Telkoi and there will be a double-engine government in Odisha.”
Similarly, Geetanjali Sethi, who has been nominated for the Kendrapara Assembly seat, said the fight is not going to be intense as her opponents in the ring have already been rejected by the people in the past.
“It will be a clean sweep for us. People will join in the wave of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP to ensure a double-engine government in Odisha. Though my opponents are experienced politicians, people will reject them as they are looking forward to a new face,” Sethi said.
“Salipur has been the fortress of BJD. But this time, the fortress would be pulled down. People will do it. I can’t do it alone. I will go to each and every voter of Salipur, listen to them and then only I will decide my future course of action. I am assuring them that I will be with them whenever they want me,” said actor-turned-politician Arindam Roy, BJP’s Salipur Assembly candidate.
