The Biju Janta Dal (BJD) fielded four women as candidates in the Odisha Assembly elections instead of their husbands who had either won or come second in the last state elections.
The decision was taken by BJD president and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who on Wednesday announced the candidates list for the assembly elections.
Sadasiva Pradhani, who resigned from a government job and became a BJD MLA from Nabarangpur in 2019, was denied a ticket by his party. He was replaced by his wife Kausalya Pradhani.
The Odisha ruling party also denied a party ticket to three-time MLA Purna Chandra Swain who was elected to the assembly in 2009, 2014 and 2019. His wife Sanghamitra Swain replaced him.
The BJD had fielded Subhas Gond as its candidate in the Umerkote assembly segment in 2019. However, he was defeated by BJP’s Nityananda Gond.
This year, the BJD did not allot a ticket to Subhas, but nominated his wife Nabina Nayak.
Patnaik also gave a BJD ticket to Subhashini Jena to contest from the Basta assembly seat in Balasore district. Subhasini is the wife of former Balasore MP Rabindra, who was elected in 2014. He lost the Lok Sabha Polls in 2019 to BJP’s Pratap Sarangi.
In the candidate list for the Lok Sabha, the BJD president has re-nominated Kausalya Hikaka for the Koraput constituency. Though she had lost the polls to Congress candidate Saptagiri Ulaka by a slender margin of 3,613 votes in the 2019 elections, Kausalya has been re-nominated by Patnaik.
She is the wife of former MP Jhina Hikaka, who was elected from Koraput LS seat in 2014. The first list of the BJD’s assembly candidates includes 12 women. The women candidates also include a speaker, two ministers and two sitting MLAs.
This apart, Patnaik has nominated the sons of two former speakers - SN Patro and Maheswar Mohanty who died last year.
While SN Patro’s son Biplab has been nominated from the Digapandi assembly seat, Maheswar Mohanty’s son Sunil will contest from Puri.
Chikiti MLA and minister Usha Devi’s son Chinmayananda Srirup Deb has been nominated to contest the assembly elections from his mother’s seat.
Usha Devi was elected to the assembly from Chikiti seat in 1990, 2000, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2019. She has been a minister in the Naveen Patnaik government since 2011.
(With PTI inputs)
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