Party lines blur in Odisha: A third of BJD’s 20 Lok Sabha picks are Congress, BJP turncoats

The BJD Wednesday announced candidates for five more Lok Sabha seats and 27 more Assembly constituencies, and with this list, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik-led party has now cleared names for 20 of the total 21 parliamentary seats and 99 Assembly segments.

The list shows that of the total BJD Lok Sabha candidates, one-third are turncoats either from the Congress or the BJP, who had joined the party recently and bagged tickets. New entrants from the Congress and the BJP have been picked in Lok Sabha seats like Kendrapada, Nabarangpur, Bhubaneswar, Balangir, Bargarh, Berhampur and Keonjhar.

BJD’s Bhubaneswar LS seat candidate Manmath Routray, son of six-time Congress MLA Suresh Routray, who left his job as a commercial pilot, was given a ticket within hours of his induction into the party.

The situation was the same for Parineeta Mishra, party’s pick for Bargarh LS seat, who along with her husband and BJP leader Susant Mishra, joined the ruling dispensation earlier in the day, and got a ticket. Both Manmath and Parineeta are poll debutants.

Hours after quitting the BJP and joining BJD, Bhrugu Baxipatra was named as its candidate from Berhampur parliamentary constituency to take on Pradeep Panigrahy, a former confidant of Naveen, who was removed from the BJD in November 2020. Baxipatra, who came second in the 2019 polls from Berhampur by garnering 3.48 lakh votes, (35.25% vote share), has been chosen over sitting MP Chandra Sekhar Sahu.

In Balangir LS seat, the BJD fielded Surendra Singh Bhoi, a 3-time Congress MLA, who joined BJD on March 29. Bhoi, who was elected to the state Assembly in 1995 and 2000 from erstwhile Saintala, and in 2009 from Titlagarh, is a known face in the district. Despite putting up tough fights, he lost to