BJD may field fresh faces in at least 13 Lok Sabha seats

Bhubaneswar: Chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik could repeat his 2014 strategy and replace candidates in at least 13 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

“Fielding new candidates will help us beat anti-incumbency against many sitting MPs while it will also help check infighting as many MLAs do not share a good rapport with their MPs,” a senior BJD leader said.

In 2014, the BJD had won 20 out the 21 Lok Sabha seats with BJP winning the remaining one.

The party will have to field new faces in the three parliamentary seats of Kendrapada, Aska and Dhenkanal. Baijayant Panda, who was elected from Kendrapda in 2014, has resigned from the party while Aska MP Ladu Kishore Swain has passed away. Dhenkanal MP Tathagata Satpathy has announced retirement from electoral politics.

Administrator-turned-politician Nalini Kant Pradhan is a frontrunner for Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat currently held by the BJD’s Nagendra Pradhan.

Former Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahoo, who last year quit the Congress to join the BJD, may get the party ticket for Berhampur Lok Sabha seat, replacing two-time MP and actor Siddhant Mohapatra.

The BJD is also known to be looking for someone to replace Ramachandra Hansdah in Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat. Hansdah has fallen out of favour after his arrest in connection with the chit fund scam in November 2014. Former student leader of SCB medical college, Debasish Marandi, who joined the BJD in May 2017 may be fielded from Mayurbhanj in his place.

The seat is reserved for a Scheduled Tribe candidate. Debasish had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha poll on Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) ticket and had secured 1.72 lakh votes.

The BJD is learnt to be looking for fresh faces in Bargarh, Berhampur, Bhadrak, Bhubaneswar, Jajpur, Keonjhar, Koraput, Sambalpur and Sundargarh as well.

Last time, the party had given tickets to new faces in 13 Lok Sabha constituencies while it retained its candidates in eight seats — Puri, Bhubaneswar, Berhampur, Cuttack, Kendrapada, Dhenkanal, Bhadrak and Balangir. This was considered to be a major reason behind its sweep then.