Union minister Jual Oram, others file nominations

Union minister Jual Oram and a host of prominent leaders were among the 229 aspirants who filed their papers Tuesday, the last day of nomination for the second phase of assembly and Lok Sabha polls in the state.

While 24 candidates filed nomination for Lok Sabha, 205 aspirants submitted papers for the assembly election to be held in the second phase on April 18, an official in the Chief Electoral Officer's (CEO) office here said.

With this, a total of 302 aspirants have filed nomination for the second phase of assembly election, and 45 candidates have done so for the Lok Sabha polls to be held in the state in the same phase, he said.

Polling in the second phase is scheduled to be held on April 18 in five Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 assembly segments.

Accompanied by a large number of supporters, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram filed his nomination from Sundargarh (ST) Lok Sabha Constituency in his bid to retain the seat he had won in 2014 election.

Nomination for the same parliamentary constituency was also filed by Congress candidate George Tirkey, who is a sitting MLA in the state.

BJP candidates pitted against Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik, who is contesting from two Assembly seats, also filed their nominations.

While BJP state vice-president Pitamber Acharya submitted his papers as the saffron party candidate from Hinjili, Sanat Gadtia filed his nomination from Bijeupr.

Patnaik is seeking a fifth consecutive term in office.

Meanwhile, scrutiny of nomination papers for the first phase of polling was undertaken and the papers of 203 assembly candidates and 28 Lok Sabha aspirants were found valid, an official said.

The first phase of polling is scheduled to be held on April 11. In the four-phase polling scheduled for the state, second and third phase of voting are slated to be held on April 23 and 29.