BJD leaves three LS, 18 Assembly seats for allies

Expressbuzz, March 28, 2009

BHUBANESWAR: The BJD has decided to leave three Lok Sabha and 18 Assembly seats for its allies. Sources said one Lok Sabha seat each will be left for the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), CPI and CPM. While the NCP will be given nine Assembly seats, the CPI will have five in its kitty. The CPM will be given four Assembly seats. However, the wrap-up discussion with the allies will be held on Saturday after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik returns from his constituency Hinjili. The NCP has been given the Balasore Lok Sabha seat from where Arun Dey has been announced as the candidate.


The CPM has been given the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat while CPI has got Jagatsinghpur (SC) parliamentary constituency. The Assembly seats in NCP’s share are Begunia, Badachana, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Talasara, Narla, Saraskana, Patakura and Rairangpur. The NCP had unilaterally announced candidates for one Lok Sabha and 10 Assembly seats. The BJD is reported to have agreed to concede all the announced seats except Remuna Assembly seat.

The Assembly seats in the share of CPI are Chhattrapur (SC), Sanakhemundi, Brajrajnagar, Champua (ST) and Soro. The CPM has got Bonai (ST), Nilgiri, Jaleswar and Bissamkatak (ST). However, there are still differences between BJD and CPM over Bissamkatak (ST). A final decision will be taken by Naveen on Saturday. The BJD has announced candidates for three more Assembly seats. While Debraj Mohanty and Bhagaban Kanhar have been nominated for Aska and Kantamal respectively, Prabhat Aditya Mishra has got the green signal for Bijepur seat.

However, the party is yet to announce its candidate for Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat. Sources said Dhaneswar Majhi is likely to be the BJD candidate from this seat. Majhi had recently quit BJP to join BJD. Meanwhile, working president of Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Bhakta Charan Das on Friday said there was no question of his resigning from the party even if he was not given a ticket.