May 5th 2024.
On Sunday, the Congress made some changes to its candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha. In a strategic move, Akshaya Acharya has been named as the candidate for the Nilgiri Assembly seat. Meanwhile, former minister and four-time MLA Debasis Nayak has been chosen for the Bari Assembly constituency, replacing Arati Deo. Nayak had recently joined the Congress after being denied a ticket by the BJP, to which he had switched from the BJD in February. He had previously won four consecutive elections from the Bari Assembly seat under the BJD banner.
In addition, Congress spokesperson Sudarsan Das has been selected to contest from the Jaleswar Assembly constituency, replacing Debiprasanna Chand. For the Athamallik Assembly segment, the party has put forward Himanshu Chaulia instead of Bijayananda Chaulia, while Uma Ballav Rath has been chosen over Sujit Mahapatra for the Puri Assembly seat. Sudarshan Sahoo has been announced as the Congress candidate for the Athagarh Assembly segment, after the previous nominee Maheboob Ahmad Khan withdrew due to insufficient funding from the party.
The Congress also made a change in their Puri Lok Sabha constituency candidate, as Sucharita Mohanty stepped down citing lack of financial support from the party. Jay Narayan Patnaik has been named as the new Congress candidate for the Puri Lok Sabha seat. With these changes, the Congress has now finalized candidates for 145 out of 147 Assembly segments in Odisha. The remaining two seats have been left for JMM and CPI.
It is worth noting that the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in Odisha will be held simultaneously in four phases, beginning from May 13 and ending on June 1. The Congress is gearing up for a tough competition in these crucial elections and hopes to secure a majority of seats to form the new government in the state.
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