The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday announced candidates for nine assembly constituencies and the remaining lone Lok Sabha seat.
The party has fielded Lekhashree Samantsinghar, a former vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who joined the BJD four days ago, from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat. By selecting Ms. Samantsinghar, the party has stuck to its policy of giving 33% of seats to women candidates. It has now named candidates for all 21 Lok Sabha seats. Earlier, the BJD had fielded women candidates from Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Bhadrak, Bargarh, Koraput and Aska.
Ms. Samantsinghar’s nomination has sparked speculation regarding the regional party’s approach to the Lok Sabha polls. Observers expressed apprehensions that she does not have enough time to get along with the BJD local leadership and workers with barely little over a month left for the election. Her new assignment appears difficult as she had spent a decade advocating for the BJP and articulating the saffron party’s perspective vigorously as a spokesperson.
But the BJD has adopted a trend of welcoming political defectors, evident in its selection of candidates for six out of 21 Lok Sabha seats. Individuals who recently switched allegiance to the BJD are now representing constituencies such as Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Bargarh, Balangir, and Kendrapara. Bhrugu Baxipatra, a former a vice-president of the BJP, is now the BJD’s Berhampur candidate.
While the regional party was open to experimentation in its choice of candidates for the Lok Sabha seats, it opted for established figures in most assembly constituencies, despite discussions about introducing new faces to beat the 24 years of anti-incumbency, said political observers.
An example of this trend is the renomination of Anant Narayan Jena, former Bhubaneswar mayor, from the Bhubaneswar Central assembly seat despite the emergence of potential challengers.
Similarly, there was deliberation over renominating Braja Kishore Pradhan, the incumbent MLA from Talcher. However, the party chose the safer option and fielded him once again. Gitanjali Routray, the wife of Sambit Routray, the sitting MLA from Paradip, and the daughter-in-law of the late veteran leader Damador Rout, has also been nominated from the Paradip assembly seat. Furthermore, the BJD has announced the candidature of Prasanna Acharya, a senior BJD leader, from Sambalpur, and Rohit Pujari, a prominent youth leader, from Rairakhol assembly seats.
