Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) announced candidates for nine more Assembly seats, while the Congress named 16 more MLA and three MP nominees for the upcoming polls in the state, Saturday.
BJD also announced the star candidate list which features party president Naveen Patnaik, Kartik Pandian and Pranab Prakash Das among others.
The BJD dropped the sitting MLAs of Champua, Remuna, Kendrapara, Anandpur, Barchana, and Simulia from contesting the upcoming election.
BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik surprised many by nominating actress Varsha Priyadarshini, who joined the party Thursday, to contest the Barchana Assembly seat, replacing sitting MLA Amar Satpathy, who was also vying for the seat for his son.
Varsha is the ex-wife of sitting Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty, who quit the BJD and joined the BJP.
The Congress picked Dulal Chandra Pradhan, Binod Bihari Nayak and Debokanta Sharma for Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Aska Lok Sabha seats, respectively.
The 16 Assembly candidates include Shipra Mallick for Kendrapara, Gyan Ranjan Patnaik for Pipili, Krushna Sagaria for Jayadev and Sonali Sahoo for Khurda.
PNN
