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Orissa Assembly speaker may contest on Congress ticket
Sarat Kumar Kar, who joined the Congress may contest the assembly polls from Bhubaneswar on Congress ticket.
The Speaker of Orissa Assembly, Sarat Kumar Kar, who joined the Congress, arrived here from Delhi today amidst talks about his contesting the assembly polls from Bhubaneswar on Congress ticket.
Kar quit the BJD yesterday after being denied the party ticket to seek re-election from his Mahanga constituency.
On his return from Delhi, Kar said the Congress high command had hinted at the possibility of his contesting from the Bhubaneswar assembly seat.
Kar said that he had a meeting with AICC president Sonia Gandhi at Delhi yesterday adding the Congress might officially announce his candidature.
PCC chief J.B.Patnaik expressed happiness at Kar's joining the party but said he had no knowledge about his being fielded from the Bhubaneswar assembly seat.
The Congress had earlier set up Bhagirathi Badajena as the party candidate from Bhubaneswar.
Badajena said he had heard from television reports about the talks of Kar being fielded in Bhubaneswar. ''But I have no such information officially and I have already got the party ticket and filed my nomination papers. The party has asked me to go ahead with the campaign,'' he said.
