7 sitting BJD MLAs denied tickets

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal on Wednesday fielded former BJP leader Parineeta Mishra from Bargarh Lok Sabha seat.

The BJD chief and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the names of 27 candidates for Assembly elections and five for Lok Sabha polls during the day. With this, the BJD has fielded 20 candidates for the 21 Lok Sabha seats, barring Balasore. The party has so far announced nominees for 99 Assembly seats out of 147.

Naveen has denied tickets to seven sitting MLAs and dropped two MPs from the list. They have been replaced by new aspirants.

The sitting MLAs who were denied re-nomination are Parsuram Dhada (Soro), Ramesh Chandra Sai (Athamallik), Angad Kanhar (Phulbani), Bijay Shankar Das (Tirtol), Pritam Padhi (Pottangi), Pratap Jena (Mahanga) and Rajkishore Das (Moroda). While Pratap Jena of Mahanga has been replaced by his son Ankit, Morada MLA Rajkishore Das’s wife Preetinanda Kanungo was nominated by the party.

Meanwhile, Soro MLA Parsuram Dhada, within hours of being denied re-nomination, resigned from BJD. ‘’I resigned from the party with a heavy heart,’’ he wrote to Naveen.

Former Phulbani MLA Debendra Kanhar, who was elected in 2009, also resigned from the party without revealing the reason. He was also in the race for party ticket this time, sources said.

The party has also dropped two sitting MPs - Chandrani Murmu (Keonjhar) and Chandrasekhar Sahu (Berhampur).

The 27-member list released for the Assembly elections included seven women candidates. They are Anusaya Patra (Badasahi), Preetinanda Kanungo (Morada), Alaka Mohanty (Brajrajnagar), Deepali Das (Jharsuguda), Jayashree Kanhar (Phulbani), Suryamani Vaidya (Khallikote) and Majula Swain Aska.

The regional party has re-nominated former minister Padmanav Behera from Biramaharajpur Assembly seat, which he has been representing since 2009.