Congress candidates list has 27 new faces in Odisha

The opposition Congress, which was routed in Odisha in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and put up a poor performance in the simultaneous assembly elections, has fielded 27 new faces so far.

The first list of 42 candidates for Odisha was released by the AICC on Monday night - 36 for the Assembly and six for Lok Sabha seats.

As per the list there are new candidates for four Lok Sabha and 23 Assembly seats in the state.

The four new candidates for the parliamentary seats are Pradeep Kumar Devta (Bargarh), George Tirkey (Sundergarh), Manoj Kumar Acharya (Kandhamal) and V Chandrasekhar Naidu (Berhampur).

The two others are Bhakta Charan Das (Kalahandi) AND Pradip Majhi (Nabarangpur).

The list, however, does not contain name of candidates for nine assembly seats and the Koraput Lok Sabha seat, polling for which is scheduled in the first phase on April 11.

OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said the list of candidates for the remaining 15 Lok Sabha and 101 Assembly seats will be announced soon.

Prominent Congress leaders who have been allotted tickets are Narasingha Mishra, who is the Leader of Opposition in the outgoing assembly, for the Bolangir assembly seat. He is the sitting MLA from the seat.

Tara Prasad Bahinipati, sitting MLA from Jeypore and the Congress chief whip in Odisha assembly and Dabugaon MLA Bhujabal Majhi are among the party's candidates.

Laxmipriya Nayak, who has been allotted the ticket from Chitrakonda assembly seat, is the lone woman candidate in the Congress list so far.