Self-correcting mode of India’s democracy
Just a few weeks before this year’s Lok Sabha election, amidst the capital’s vibrant pre-election fervor, a discussion session for my newly released book took place at the India International Centre.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday declared a third list of five candidates for the Lok Sabha elections, including Bhrugu Baxipatra, the BJP import for the prestigious Berhampur parliamentary seat.
With this, the party has fielded candidates for 20 of the 21 seats in the state. The party is yet to finalise the candidate for the prestigious Balasore seat, where the BJP and Congress have fielded former Union ministers Pratap Chandra Sarangi and Srikant Jena, respectively.
Earlier, Baxipatra was nominated for the Berhampur seat hours after he quit the BJP to join BJD.
Advertisement
The BJD also released the second list of 27 candidates for Assembly polls. The party has so far nominated 99 candidates in the 147 seats for the Assembly.
On the other hand, the BJP has already declared candidates for all 21 Lok Sabha seats while 112 nominees have been announced by the party for the 147 seats.
The Indian National Congress has so far declared the first list of candidates for eight Lok Sabha and 49 Assembly seats.
The candidates declared on Wednesday for five more LS seats are Bolangir- Surendra Singh Bhoi, Bhadrak- Manjulata Mandal, Bargarh- Parinita Mishra, Berhampur- Bhrugu Baxipatra, Keonjhar- Dharurjay Sidhu.
Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the coastal state will be held simultaneously in four phases on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJD bagged a maximum number of 12 seats, followed by the BJP (8) and the Congress (1).
Advertisement
