No names from Odisha in BJP’s first list of Lok Sabha candidates

Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) announced the first list of candidates for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, 2024. The saffron party released names of 195 candidates in total in the first list today. However, this long list does not contains any names from Odisha.

At a time when discussion rife over alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the ruling Government of Odisha, absence of names from the State in the first list has provided fuel to more discussions with speculations by political analysts.

It is to be noted that yesterday only BJP Odisha unit president Manmohan Samal said that there would be no alliance with any political party, including the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), for the upcoming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls.

Also, earlier today, BJD held the saffron party responsible for alliance ‘rumour’ ahead of the elections in the state. Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, BJD’s national spokesperson Sasmit Patra alleged that some leaders of BJP in Odisha are spreading rumours about alliance between the two parties through media.

In February last week it had been discussed that the BJP is likely to announce names of 100 MP candidates for the upcoming elections while the list may include six names from Odisha. Then, reports said that these candidates may be fielded by the Saffron party – Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur, Sambit Patra from Puri, Aparajita Sadangi from Bhubaneswar, Juel Oram from Sundergarh. However, today BJP released names of 195 candidates for the LS polls but this first list contains no names from Odisha.

Also read: BJP Likely To Announce Names Of 100 MP Candidates Soon Including 6 From Odisha, Check List