BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday released the second list of candidates for 21 Assembly seats and nominated former Union Minister Dilip Ray from Rourkela. In a notable change, the central election committee (CEC) of the BJP renominated senior leader and former minister Surama Padhi from Ranpur Assembly segment by replacing Tapas Ranjan Martha. Martha, BJP’s Nayagarh district unit president, was among the 112 candidates who figured in the first list the party announced on April 2. He was stated to have the backing of national spokesperson and Puri Lok Sabha candidate Sambit Patra. Pottangi is the other Assembly constituency where the party changed the nominee. Chaitanya Nandibali has replaced Chaitanya Hantal as the latter belong to scheduled caste. The assembly seat is reserved for scheduled tribe (ST). Days after joining the BJP, former Congress MLA from Laxmipur Kailash Chandra Kulesika has got nomination from the seat. Kulesika had joined BJD following assurance of a ticket from the regional party which repeated its sitting MLS Prabhu Jani. Making an explosive statement after his nomination, Kulesika alleged that tickets are being sold by the BJD and the asking rate for Laxmipur was in the range of Rs 5 crore to 6 crore. Earlier, he had claimed that the BJD offered him Rs 1 crore with a promise to make him the chairman of the Special Development Council if he withdrew from the ticket race. As many as 16 out of the 21 candidates are new faces. The party sprang a surprise by naming Lalit Behera, a political greenhorn from a moderate background for politically sensitive Rajnagar Assembly seat. After a long wait for BJD to name its candidate for Kakatpur seat, the BJP has accommodated former MLA from Nimapara Baidhar Mallick from the constituency. After denying renomination to Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu from Mayurbhanj Lok Sabha seat, the party has not considered his candidature for Assembly election so far.



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