Lack of consensus behind delay in BJD candidate list

Bhubaneswar: With a few weeks left for the elections, the ruling BJD is still unable to reach a consensus on several key constituencies as candidates for Balasore Lok Sabha and 39 assembly constituencies are yet to be announced.

For example, delay in announcement of candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat. There was speculation that BJP vice president Lekhashree Samantasinghar, who joined BJD after resigning from the saffron party on Sunday, would be declared as the Balasore Lok Sabha candidate. However, BJD is yet to make the announcement, leading to further speculation about the party’s candidate from the seat.

Sources said the party is waiting for the announcement of the Congress candidate from this seat to decide its strategy. Recently, after rejoining the party, Congress had named former Union Minister Shrikant Jena as its candidate from this seat, but the announcement has been postponed.
Party sources said that the problem is that Navjyoti Patnaik, son of former OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, who had contested from this seat in 2019, is not ready to give up the seat. If refused, he can choose other options. Sources said that BJD is waiting for the announcement of Congress candidate.

Besides this, the delay in announcing candidates for the three assembly seats under Sambalpur Lok Sabha has also affected the preparations of the ruling party for the fight against Union Minister and BJP candidate Dharmendra Pradhan. BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das has been pitted against Pradhan on the Lok Sabha seat.

Regarding Sambalpur Assembly seat, the party has not yet finalized the candidate as there are three candidates. They are former district president Siddharth Das, former MLA and former district president Raseshwari Panigrahi and Rairakhol MLA Rohit Pujari. Sources said the party has not given the green signal to any of them, leaving the organization in a state of confusion.

Similarly, the candidate from Rairakhol is undecided as its sitting MLA Pujari is vying for the Sambalpur seat, while veteran leader Prasanna Acharya is still yet to fully recover from the fatal road accident.
There is confusion on Kuchinda assembly seat also and many claimants are trying for the ticket. The transfer of Nalini Kanta Pradhan to Athamallik assembly seat has also given rise to deep resentment. Many party leaders said that if these problems were not resolved as soon as possible, it would be very difficult to successfully contest Union Minister Pradhan on the Lok Sabha seat.

Problems persist in several other seats, including Angul, Kendrapara and Bhubaneswar-Central constituencies. It was expected that the leadership could reach a consensus on the candidature without any delay. However, supporters of former deputy speaker and sitting MLA Rajnikant Singh protested in front of Naveen Niwas on Tuesday and demanded that Singh be re-nominated from the seat.