Odisha Lok Sabha polls: Congress keeps faith in sons and daughters

BHUBANESWAR: The Congress has fielded Navajyoti Patnaik, son of party’s state president Niranjan Patnaik, from Balasore

Lok Sabha

seat. The party, which released a list of candidates for seven more Lok Sabha and 20 assembly seats on Friday, also gave ticket to senior leader Ananta Sethi’s daughter Madhumita for Bhadrak parliamentary constituency.

The Congress has nominated journalist-turned-politician Satya Prakash Nayak as its candidate for

Puri

Lok Sabha seat. Nayak, a Congress spokesperson, will lock horns with BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra and BJD heavyweight and incumbent MP Pinaki Mishra in Puri.

The Congress has denied ticket to former assembly speaker and state Congress president Braja Mohan Mohanty’s daughter Sucharita Mohanty, who had unsuccessfully contested from the Puri Lok Sabha seat in 2014.

The Congress has brought former state president and six-time Lok Sabha member K P Singhdeo into the poll fray for Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat. Singhdeo had last contested elections unsuccessfully in 2004. The party has re-nominated senior lawyer Dharanidhar Nayak for Kendrapada Lok Sabha seat despite his defeat in 2014. New nominees have also been introduced in Keonjhar (Fakir Mohan Naik) and

Jagatsinghpur

(Pratima Mallick) Lok Sabha seats.

Navajyoti said the party will adopt the best strategy to win the Balasore Lok Sabha seat where the BJD has re-nominated its sitting MP Rabindra Jena and BJP has fielded senior leader Pratap Sarangi. “I am hopeful of getting a positive result in Balasore. We will develop Balasore,” said Navajyoti, an engineering and management graduate.

The fresh list of 20 MLA candidates has 17 new entrants. The Congress has so far announced candidates for 111 of 147 assembly constituencies and 15 of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. The party has struck a seat-sharing agreement with CPI, CPM and JMM in a few Lok Sabha and assembly seats. The 111 MLA candidates of Congress, so far announced in Odisha, includes 10 women whereas there are only two women among the 15 MP nominees. In 2014, Congress fielded only eight women MLA candidates and two women Lok Sabha candidates.

Tickets for Niranjan’s son and Ananta Sethi’s daughter have reaffirmed the fact that the Congresss promotes family politics in Odisha. Earlier, the Congress gave tickets to leader of opposition Narasingha Mishra and his son Samarendra, former Union minister Bhakta Das and his son Sagar and MLA George Tirkey and his son Rohit Joseph in different assembly and Lok Sabha seats.