BJD’s First List Of Candidates Is A Motley Mix Of Old And New Faces

As expected, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik has decided to contest from two Assembly seats in the upcoming elections: his old constituency of Hinjili in Ganjam district and Bijepur in Bargarh district. Bijepur was being talked about as his possible choice ever since he announced his intention to contest from a seat in western Odisha on Sunday morning. It means the incumbent MLA from Bijepur, the widow of former MLA Subal Sahu, will have to make way for the Chief Minister barely a year after being elected in the by-election necessitated by the death of her husband.

The big takeaway from the list of candidates for nine Lok Sabha seats and 54 Assembly seats that go to polls in the first two phases announced by the party president this afternoon, however, is that eight of the nine Lok Sabha constituencies and 24 Assembly seats will have new BJD candidates. This is entirely in keeping with the speculation over the last several months that up to half the seats the party had in the Lok Sabha and Assembly could see sitting legislators being replaced. But many of those chosen in place of the incumbent MPs/MLAs are not exactly new faces, but existing legislators. For example, two of those fielded for the parliamentary elections – Achyuta Samanta from Kandhamal and Prasanna Acharya from Bargarh - are sitting members of the Rajya Sabha. Pushpendra Singhdeo, who is the candidate from the Kalahandi Lok Sabha constituency, is a sitting BJD MLA and minister while another MLA and minister Ramesh Majhi has been fielded as the Lok Sabha candidate from Nabarangpur.

Curiously, Naveen has held back the announcement of party candidates in nine Assembly seats that come under the nine Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the first two phases. Observers believe he is still in the process of assessing the impact of a possible rebellion if the sitting MLAs are replaced in these constituencies. It is pertinent to mention here that three sitting BJD legislators – Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi, Nilgiri MLA Sukanta Nayak and Gunupur MLA Trinath Gamang – have left the party even before the first list of candidates was announced after realizing that they would not get the party ticket. With as many as 24 MLAs being replaced in the first list, there would be many more who would follow in the footsteps of these three or, worse still, undercut the chances of the official candidates while remaining in the party. The outcome of the coming election would largely depend on how Naveen manages the revolt that is certain to break out after changes on such a large scale.

In keeping with his announcement that 33% of Lok Sabha seats would be reserved for women, the BJD supremo has nominated three women in the first list of nine candidates announced today. Significantly though, there are only nine women among the 54 Assembly candidates named today. This perhaps means that the 33% reservation for women would be limited only to the Lok Sabha elections and would not be extended to the Assembly polls.

Another point to note about the list of candidates released today is the number of recent recruits from other parties who have been fielded as BJD candidates. There are two such imports in the list of nine Lok Sabha candidates: former Union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu and Sunita Biswal, daughter of former Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Hemananda Biswal, both of whom were with the Congress earlier. Two Congress recruits have also been fielded as BJD candidates for the Assembly elections. They are Naba Das from Jharsuguda and Jogesh Singh from Sundargarh.

Overall, the list of candidates announced Monday is a mixed bag of old faces, new faces, old faces fielded from a different constituency, recruits from other parties and rank outsiders.

The Congress and BJP, which had clearly been waiting for the BJD to get off the blocks first, would be working overtime over the next few hours, going through the list in great detail before deciding on their own candidates to give themselves the best possible chance of posing a challenge to this motley mix.