Bhubaneswar: The Congress Saturday released a fresh list of candidates for two Lok Sabha seats and 13 Assembly constituencies of Odisha. The party has replaced candidates in one Lok Sabha and three Assembly constituencies for which nominees had been announced earlier.
The Congress has replaced Mohan Hembram with Binod Bihari Nayak at the Keonjhar Lok Sabha seat.
Similarly, the party has fielded Sarat Kumar Pradhan in place of Manoj Kumar Acharya on Kantamal Assembly segment under Kandhamal Parliamentary constituency. Sanjay Kumar Mandal has replaced Bipin Bihari Swain at Kabisuryanagar Assembly seat under Aska Parliamentary constituency.
The party also nominated Krushna Sagaria for Jayadev Assembly segment under Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat in place of Jayant Kumar Bhoi.
Congress has fielded Dulal Chandra Pradhan on the high profile Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency where Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Bharatiya Janata Party and the Biju Janata Dal heavyweight Pranab Prakash Das have already hit the campaign trail. Debokanta Sharma has been fielded by the Congress from Aska Lok Sabha constituency.
In another major development, the party has fielded Shidharth Routray, the elder son of expelled senior leader Suresh Kumar Routray, on Nimapara Assembly segment in Puri Lok Sabha constituency.
Congress also fielded former BJD MLA Sipra Mallick who joined the party April 18 from Kendrapara Assembly constituency.
Meanwhile, Amita Biswal, Manoj Kumar Pradhan and Gyan Ranjan Patnaik have been nominated from Jharsuguda, Khandapada and Pipili Assembly constituencies, respectively.
The party has so far declared the names of candidates on 136 out of 147 Assembly constituencies and 19 of the 21 Lok Sabha constituencies.
The party also left two Assembly seats in Sundargarh district, Biramitrapur and Bonai constituencies, to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and CPI-M, respectively.
IANS
