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The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today struck out names of seven sitting MLAs including former cabinet minister Raghunath Mohanty in its latest candidate list for 15 assembly seats.
Before Mohanty, BJD had denied renomination opportunity to another heavyweight, Prafulla Ghadai on Saturday. BJD's candidates list, announced in five tranches till now, has seen party ticket being denied to several sitting MLAs.
In place of Mohanty, who was elected to the assembly from Basta constituency in Balasore five times in a row since 1990, the party has fielded Nityanand Pradhan as its candidate.
It was being speculated that Mohanty may be denied party ticket as BJD supremo and chief minister Naveen Patnaik, for some time, was maintaining a distance from Mohanty, who was jailed on allegation of torturing his daughter-in-law. He had held portfolios such as law, steel and mines, industries, parliamentary affairs, MSME, panchayati raj and IT during his long stint in the government.
Last year, he was asked to resign from ministership after cases of dowry torture surfaced against him. Mohanty and three of his relations, including his wife, have been charge-sheeted by the Human Right Protection Cell of Odisha Police recently.
Other sitting MLAs who have been denied tickets are Bibhuti Balabantaray (Jatni), Bhagirathi Sethi (Anandapur), Premananda Naik (Telkoi), Sipra Mallick (Kendrapara), Subarna Naik (Keonjhar) and Rajendra Das (Dhamnagar).
Besides, Jitu Patnaik, the independent MLA from Champua, who had joined the party a month ago as an associate member, has also been denied party ticket. The party named popular comedian Tatwaprakash Satpathy (Papu Pom Pom) to contest from this seat.
Jitu Patnaik’s absence from candidates list comes as a surprise, as another independent MLA Braja Kishor Pradhan has been given a party ticket from Talcher constituency. Both Pradhan and Patnaik had joined BJD ahead of Rajya Sabha elections earlier this year.
The names were announced today for candidates representing districts of Khurda, Balasore, Keonjhar and Kendrapara. This leaves the ruling party to name candidates for two more assembly seats, Niali and Patkura, though the last date for filing of nominations is barely 48 hours away.
The party has. so far, announced candidates for 145 assembly and 21 Lok Sabha seats. It has denied tickets to 35 sitting MLAs and six MPs. The polls in the state will be conducted in two phases on April 10 and 17.
