BJP's Rudra Madhab Ray and Congress nominee Abhimany Behera were among the seven candidates who filed their papers today for the October 15 Kandhamal Lok Sabha bye-election.
BJD's Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh, widow of former MP Hemendra Chandra Singh, had filed her nomination papers yesterday. Hemendra's death on September 5 necessitated the bypoll.
"A total number of nine candidates have filed nominations for the bye-election," an EC official said.
Ray, who represented Kandhamal parliamentary seat from 2009 to 2014 as a BJD MP, had recently joined BJP and was given a party ticket to contest the election.
Former Phulbani MLA and Congress nominee Abhimanyu Behera filed his papers today with his party putting up a show of unity in the district.
Behera was taken in a procession flanked by party leaders including PCC chief Jaydev Jena, former chief ministers Giridhar Gamang and Hemananda Biswal and former PCC chief Niranjan Patnaik.
"Now we are one and united. This is one of the happiest moments. We will unitedly fight the elections and we are sure to win," Jena said.
