Five party hoppers in BJD candidate list in Odisha

, March 20: The ruling

on Thursday denied tickets to nine sitting MLAs and re-nominated all ministers to contest the second phase of polling for

Assembly on April 17 while five party hoppers were among the 41 candidates announced by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Patnaik announced the name of candidates for 41 segments out of the total 77 Assembly constituencies going to polls in the second phase. Polling will be held in 11 Lok Sabha constituencies and 77 Assembly segments on April 17.

The state president of JMM Sudam Marandi, who joined the BJD barely a few days ago, was given a party ticket from the Bangiriposi Assembly segment. JMM leader Bhadab Hansda, who joined the BJD along with Marandi, also got a ticket to contest from the Saraskana Assembly segment.

In Odisha, polling will be held in 11 LS and 77 Assembly seats on April 1

While former minister and ex-BJP leader Golak Naik was nominated to contest from the Udala Assembly constituency in Mayurbhanj district, another former BJP leader Aswini Patra was also given a BJD ticket to contest from the Jaleswar Assembly seat in Balasore. Last time elected to the Talcher Assembly segment as an Independent candidate, Braja Pradhan, who recently joined the BJD during the Rajya Sabha elections, was given a party ticket by Naveen Patnaik.

The sitting MLAs who have been denied party tickets were former minister Kalindi Behera (Cuttack Sadar), former minister Anjali Behera (Hindol), Srinath Soren (Udala), Kamalakanta Nayak (Jashipur), Manoranjan Sethi (Badasahi), Bijay Nayak (Chandbali), Sidharth Sekhar Singh (Khandapada), Satyanarayan Pradhan (Ranpur) and Bhagaban Kanhar (Kantamal).

The ministers who have been re-nominated by the BJD are tourism minister Maheswar Mohanty, agriculture minister Debi Prasad Mishra, energy minister Arun Kumar Sahoo, forest minister Bijayshree Routray, steel and mines minister Rajani Kanta Singh and food and supplies minister Pratap K Deb. Similarly, former ministers Pradip Maharathy, Pramila Mallick, Pratap Jena, Ranendra Pratap Swain, Amar Satpathy, Atanu S Nayak, Golak Nayak, Prafulla Samal and Debasis Nayak have also been given party tickets.

However, former minister and sitting MLA Anjali Behera was denied a ticket from the Hindol Assembly segment. The BJD candidate list comprises seven new faces and two women.

PTI