Party lines blur in Odisha: A third of BJD’s 20 Lok Sabha picks are Congress, BJP turncoats

BJD’s Bhubaneswar LS seat candidate Manmath Routray, son of six-time Congress MLA Suresh Routray, who left his job as a commercial pilot, was given a ticket within hours of his induction into the party.

The situation was the same for Parineeta Mishra, party’s pick for Bargarh LS seat, who along with her husband and BJP leader Susant Mishra, joined the ruling dispensation earlier in the day, and got a ticket. Both Manmath and Parineeta are poll debutants.

Hours after quitting the BJP and joining BJD, Bhrugu Baxipatra was named as its candidate from Berhampur parliamentary constituency to take on Pradeep Panigrahy, a former confidant of Naveen, who was removed from the BJD in November 2020. Baxipatra, who came second in the 2019 polls from Berhampur by garnering 3.48 lakh votes, (35.25% vote share), has been chosen over sitting MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu.

In Balangir LS seat, the BJD fielded Surendra Singh Bhoi, a 3-time Congress MLA, who joined BJD on March 29. Bhoi, who was elected to the state Assembly in 1995 and 2000 from erstwhile Saintala, and in 2009 from Titlagarh, is a known face in the district. Despite putting up tough fights, he lost to BJD’s Tukuni Sahu from Titlargarh in the 2014 and 2019 Assembly polls.

Party’s Kendrapada LS nominee Anshuman Mohanty is a former Congress MLA, who joined the BJD in February, while in Nabarangpur, the BJD has reposed faith on Pradeep Majhi, who joined the ruling dispensation ahead of 2022 panchayat polls. The BJD’s sitting Kendrapada MP Anubhav Mohanty has now switched to BJP.

Mohanty, the son of former Biju loyalist Nalini Mohanty, is a popular, young face in Kendrapada. He was elected to the state Assembly in 2014 from Rajnagar Assembly segment. Despite a tough fight in 2019, he lost to BJD’s Dhruba Sahu in Rajnagar by 18,408 votes. It would be his first Lok Sabha polls.

Majhi became an MP in 2009 on a Congress ticket, but lost the last two Lok Sabha polls by narrow margins to BJD candidates.

The ruling party also denied ticket to its Keonjhar MP Chandrani Murmu, one of the youngest faces in the 17th Lok Sabha and nominated former Congress MLA from Champua Dhanurjaya Sidu as its candidate from the seat. In 2019, Sidu had contested on a BJP ticket from Telkoi Assembly seat and lost to BJD’s Premananda Nayak by 5,920 votes. Sidu switched to BJD ahead of the 2022 panchayat polls, resulting in Nayak’s exit from the party. Nayak joined the BJP.

Continuing the trend of fielding women candidates in one-third of the Lok Sabha seats, which it did in 2019, the party has so far fielded six women faces.

For the Assembly polls, the BJD has repeated most of its sitting MLAs. In several constituencies where the party has denied tickets to sitting MLAs, they were replaced by their close relatives. However, in eight Assembly constituencies, the party denied tickets to sitting MLAs but did not pick their relatives for the polls.