India News | Odisha Assembly Polls: BJP Names 8 More Candidates Including 4 Turncoats

Bhubaneswar, Apr 27 (PTI) The BJP on Saturday announced the names of eight more candidates for the assembly polls in Odisha, with four of them being former members of the ruling BJD who switched allegiance to the saffron party recently.

These turncoats are Seemarani Nayak (Hindol), Arindam Roy (Salipur), Geetanjali Sethi (Kendrapara), and Prasant Jagdev (Khurda).

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Jagdev, formerly a BJD MLA from Chilika, was ousted from the party before he joined the BJP. Roy is a popular Odia actor.

The remaining candidates announced by the party are Fakir Mohan Naik (Telkoi), Murali Manohar Sharma (Champua), Rabindra Andia (Basta), and Banikalyan Mohanty (Basudevpur).

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The saffron party has so far announced candidates for 140 out of the 147 assembly segments, the BJD has declared 141 candidates, while the Congress has put forth 138 aspirants for the polls, slated to be conducted in four phases from May 13 to June 1.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)