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With new and first time voters geared to shape up the future of Indian politics, political parties have fielded many new faces for the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha's Jajpur district.
As many as 71 candidates are in the fray for the second phase of polls to Jajpur parliamentary constituency, reserved for SC, and seven assembly seats scheduled for April 17 in the district. While 62 candidates are contesting for seven assembly seats, nine are in the race for the lone Lok Sabha seat.
An analysis of the contestants shows 67% of the candidates contesting the simultaneous elections in the district are new faces. Of total 62 contestants for the Assembly seats, 42 are fresh faces.
Similarly, six candidates fighting for the Lok Sabha seat are first-timers.
Sukinda assembly constituency tops the list with 10 new comers of the total 13, followed by Korei with 8 of 10 and seven of nine candidates in Barachana segment.
While the Congress has fielded fresh candidates in Korei, Bari and Jajpur Assembly seats, ruling BJD has fielded newcomers in Korei and Dharmasala segments.
In Korei, both BJD and Congress candidates will be contesting the elections for the first time. BJD nominee and Bollywood star Akash Das Nayak will fight it out with Congress candidate Biswajit Nayak.
The sitting MLA of Korei Pritiranjan Ghadai is contesting for Sukinda seat on a BJD ticket after his father and former finance minister Prafulla Ghadai was dropped by BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik this time.
For Jajpur seat, Congress nominee Santosh Kumar Nanda will contest against BJD's Pranab Prakash Das while Congress candidate Gagan Jena will fight the polls against sitting MLA Debasis Nayak of BJD in Bari Assembly seat.
Besides, several new faces are contesting as Independent candidates and nominees of newly floated political parties in the ensuing elections.
For Jajpur Parliamentary seat, Congress and BJD have fielded Ashok Das and Rita Tarai respectively, both fresh candidates. Ashok had earlier contested from Binjharpur Assembly seat in 2004 elections and lost to Pramila Malik of BJD.
Amiya Malik is contesting for the seat on BJP ticket for the first time. He contested Parliamentary elections from Jajpur in 2004 and 2009 elections on Congress ticket but lost to BJD's Mohan Jena.
