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Lok Sabha elections 2019: BJP nominates former CRPF DG for Cuttack Lok Sabha seat
BJP also announced the candidates for nine Assembly constituencies that will go to polls in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th phase of elections.
The BJP has released the third list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha. In the list, the BJP has announced the candidature of former CRPF DG Prakash Mishra and former MP Kharabela Swain for Cuttack and Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
Mishra had joined BJP on Sunday while three-time Lok Sabha MP Kharabela Swain joined the party on Monday. Swain, who was BJP’s vice-president between 1993 and 2000, had left the party in 2010 alleging RSS interference in BJP affairs. The same year, he had formed his own party Utkal Bharat. “I have rejoined the party to oust the corrupt and inefficient BJD government in Odisha. Being inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s developmental programmes, I preferred to return to the party,” said Swain after joining the BJP.
BJP also announced the candidates for nine Assembly constituencies that will go to polls in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th phase of elections. Among the nine names, the party has nominated Rishabh Nanda, the son of BJD Rajya Sabha MP Prashanta Nanda, for Begunia assembly seat.
However, BJP’s electoral campaign received a jolt on Monday after party leader Subash Chouhan refused to contest against chief minister Naveen Patnaik from Bijepur Assmebly seat. Chouhan who lost the 2014 Lok Sabha election from Bargarh by barely 11,000 votes, and was looking to contest again on the same seat, took to Facebook to post his resentment after being denied renomination.
“I had nurtured Bargarh for the last 5 years. When I was getting ready to stand again, I was denied ticket. I was asked to stand from Bijepur Assembly seat. When I proposed the name of Dharmendra Pradhan (union petroleum minister), I was shouted down. My workers and supporters were threatened. This is an insult to OBCs of western Odisha,” Chouhan wrote on Facebook. Chouhan is yet to accept the offer of vice-presidentship of state BJP.
BJP did not react to Chouhan’s allegations immediately.
