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The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday nominated Lekhasri Samantsinghar, a prominent media face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a critic of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, for the Balasore Lok Sabha (LS) constituency.
The LS ticket to Samantsinghar demonstrated that the BJD walked the talk on giving women 33 per cent of the seats to contest, as seen in 2019 as well.
Interestingly, the party allocated eight, or 38 per cent, of its LS tickets to turncoats from the BJP and the Congress.
Odisha will vote for the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously, in four phases, beginning May 13. While the BJD and the BJP have declared their candidates for all the 21 LS constituencies in the state, the Congress has announced nominees only for the seats that are going to the polls in the fourth and fifth phases.
No party has completed its list for the Assembly constituencies.
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In the 2019 elections, the BJD had bagged 12 LS seats, the BJP won eight and the Congress one.
Party-hopping gathered pace after the BJD-BJP re-alliance talks failed.
Among prominent names who first switched sides to the BJP were Pradeep Panigrahy, a sitting legislator who was expelled by the BJD, and Prashant Jagdev, the ruling party MLA who was suspended for ploughing into a crowd of protestors comprising BJP workers.
Senior journalist Sandeep Mishra said the BJD had given the ticket to several turncoats apparently because it had not adequately groomed potential candidates from within the party for the LS polls. “Its focus understandably has been on the Assembly elections and, in the process it has not done enough exercise on the LS nominees, forcing it to go for new faces, including at places turncoats. It has also felt compelled to accommodate new entrants, especially party-hoppers, who must have been given some kind of an assurance for ticket before embracing the BJD,” Mishra said.
While Samantsinghar, who quit the BJP and joined the BJD on Sunday, is pitted against former Union minister and sitting MP Pratap Sarangi in Balasore, the Berhampur seat is witnessing a showdown between party-hoppers. Bhrugu Baxipatra, a former BJP leader who recently switched to the BJD, will compete against Panigrahy, a sitting legislator and expelled BJD leader. In 2019, Baxipatra had unsuccessfully contested from Berhampur on the BJP ticket.
In Kendrapara, former Congress legislator Anshuman Mohanty, who joined the BJD in February, will face off against the BJP's Baijayant Jay Panda, who had quit the ruling BJD in 2018. Panda had lost to the BJD’s Anubhav Mohanty in 2019.
Mohanty has now joined the BJP.
The BJD has fielded former Congress MP Pradeep Majhi from Nabarangpur, the seat he won in 2014 on the Congress ticket. Majhi had joined the BJD in 2021.
Manmath Routray, son of Congress MLA Suresh Routray, is contesting against sitting BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi in Bhubaneswar.
The BJD has announced the name of Surendra Singh Bhoi, who quit the Congress after 38 years, for the Balangir constituency. Bhoi is pitted against sitting MP Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo (BJP) and actor-turned-politician Manoj Mishra (Congress).
The BJP, on the other hand, has fielded six-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab, who quit the BJD last month, against Santrupt Misra, former human resources head of Aditya Birla Group, from Cuttack. From Puri, the BJP has again fielded party spokesperson Sambit Patra, who lost a closely fought battle against BJD’s Pinaki Misra five years back. Another prominent BJP candidate is Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is in the fray from Sambalpur.
Party hoppers on Odisha's LS seats
| Candidate | Party (constituency) | Switched from |
| Surendra Singh Bhoi | BJD (Balangir) | Congress |
| Lekhasri Samantsinghar | BJD (Balasore) | BJP |
| Parineeta Mishra | BJD (Bargarh) | BJP |
| Bhrugu Baxipatra | BJD (Berhampur) | BJP |
| Manmath Routray | BJD (Bhubaneswar) | Congress |
| Pradeep Majhi | BJD (Nabarangpur) | Congress |
| Anshuman Mohanty | BJD (Kendrapara) | Congress |
| Dhanurjaya Sidu | BJD (Keonjhar) | BJP |
| Bhartruhari Mahtab | BJP (Cuttack) | BJD |
| Pradeep Panigrahy | BJP (Berhampur) | BJD |
