Patnaik announces Lekhasri as BJD candidate for Balasore LS seat, reveals names of 9 assembly candidates

Notably, she is the second former BJP vice-president, following Bhrugu Baxipatra, to receive BJDs nomination for the Lok Sabha elections.The BJD has so far fielded seven women candidates for the LS polls, thus maintaining the partys 33 per cent reservation for women candidates, as seen in the 2019 general elections.Among the nine assembly candidates announced, two sitting MLAs - Sambit Routray Paradip and Bhupinder Singh Narla - have been replaced.

BJD president Naveen Patnaik on Thursday nominated Lekhasri Samantasinghar as the party's Balasore Lok Sabha candidate. He also announced the names of nine candidates for the assembly elections.

Samantasinghar recently switched allegiance from the BJP's Odisha unit. Her nomination marks the completion of BJD's candidate roster for all 21 Lok Sabha seats. Notably, she is the second former BJP vice-president, following Bhrugu Baxipatra, to receive BJD's nomination for the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJD has so far fielded seven women candidates for the LS polls, thus maintaining the party's 33 per cent reservation for women candidates, as seen in the 2019 general elections.

Among the nine assembly candidates announced, two sitting MLAs - Sambit Routray (Paradip) and Bhupinder Singh (Narla) - have been replaced. Madhab Sardar, who was defeated in Keonjhar assembly seat in 2019 elections, will replace Premenada Nayak in Telkoi. Nayak had earlier resigned from the BJD and joined the BJP and got nomination from the saffron party.

Prasanna Acharya, the party's senior vice-president, has been nominated as the candidate for Sambalpur assembly seat. He will take on leader of opposition Jaynarayan Mishra of the BJP.

Sitting MLAs who have been renominated are - Prabhu Jani (Laxmipur), Braja Pradhan (Talcher), Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda) and Ananta Narayan Jena (Bhubaneswar central).

Former minister and sitting MLA Rohit Pujari has been re-nominated from Rairakhol seat while Paradip MLA Sambit Routray has been replaced by his wife Gitanjali.

Patnaik has denied party nomination to sitting MLA Bhupinder Singh from Narla assembly segment in Kalahandi district. Manorama Mohanty has replaced Singh, a new face in the electoral race.

So far Patnaik has announced names of 117 (of the 147) candidates for assembly elections and all the 21 nominees for the Lok Sabha elections.

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