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This is an archive article published on April 3, 2024

All in the family: Odisha Congress list pits brother against brother

Former Odisha chief secretary Bijay Patnaik, who joined the Congress in February last year, will try his luck from the Paralakhemundi Assembly seat, a Telugu-dominated constituency bordering Andhra Pradesh.

bhujbal majhi, lipika majhi, odisha list, congress, indian expressthe Congress named former MLA Bhujbal Majhi as its Lok Sabha candidate while his daughter, Lipika, a doctor by profession, has been named the party's candidate for Dabugam Assembly seat. (FB/ Lipika Majhi)

Names of a daughter-father and a father-son figured in the Congress’s list of eight candidates for the Lok Sabha polls and 47 candidates for the Assembly polls announced on Tuesday.

In Nabarangpur, a seat reserved for Scheduled Tribes (ST) candidates, the Congress named former MLA Bhujbal Majhi as its Lok Sabha candidate while his daughter, Lipika, a doctor by profession, has been named the party’s candidate for Dabugam Assembly seat.

Bhujbal was elected to the Assembly thrice in 2000, 2009 and 2014 from the Dabugam seat. In the last Assembly polls, he lost to BJD’s Manohar Randhari by 7,363 votes. In the Lok Sabha polls, he will take on former party colleague Pradeep Majhi, who is the BJD’s pick for the seat, and BJP candidate Balabhadra Majhi.

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Pradeep, who won the Nabarangpur seat — part of the Koraput-Balangir- Kalahandi (KBK) region with a significant Congress base — as a Congress nominee in 2009. He lost the 2014 polls to the BJD’s Balabhadra Majhi by 2,042 votes and in 2019 to Ramesh Majhi by 41,634 votes. Considered a strong, young Congress face, Pradeep quit the party to join the BJD ahead of 2022 panchayat polls.

“People of Nabarangpur have already seen two Majhis (Pradeep in 2009) and Balabhadra (in 2014) and what they have done for the constituency after getting elected. They have made up their minds to elect the third Majhi (Bhujbal) in the coming polls,” said Bhujbal.

Former Union minister Bhakta Charan Das and his son Sagar have been named as Congress candidates for the Narla and Bhawanipatna Assembly seats respectively.

Das, who won the Kalahandi seat in 1989, 1996 and 2009, faced defeat in the last two Lok Sabha polls. His poll performance is believed to be the reason behind his decision to switch to Assembly polls. He was elected to the Odisha Assembly in 1985 as a Janata Party nominee. Sagar had contested the Bhawanipatna seat in 2019 and finished third by securing only 35,494 votes, which accounted for 21.56% vote share.

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The Congress has repeated its sitting MP Saptagiri Ulaka in Koraput, while in Balangir, the party nominated Manoj Mishra, an actor, who joined the Congress recently.

Party’s state unit president Sarat Pattanayak will contest the Assembly polls from Nuapada seat while in Talsara, the party has named former Indian hockey captain Prabodh Tirkey as its candidate.

Prabodh is the second hockey icon after Dilip Tirkey to join electoral politics. Dilip is the BJD candidate from Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat. The grand old party has also repeated most of its MLAs, while in some places it has nominated their close relatives.

Former Odisha chief secretary Bijay Patnaik, who joined the Congress in February last year, will try his luck from the Paralakhemundi Assembly seat, a Telugu-dominated constituency bordering Andhra Pradesh.

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For the Chikiti Assembly segment, the Congress has nominated Rabinarayan Dyan Samantara, son of Congress veteran and former Odisha speaker Chintamani Dyan Samantara. The constituency will see a contest between two brothers as Rabinarayan’s younger brother Manoranjan Dyan Samantara is the BJP’s pick for the seat. The siblings will also face a tough fight from the BJD’s Srirup Deb, who replaced his mother and senior party leader Usha Devi from the seat. Manoranjan had contested the 2014 and 2019 polls as a BJP nominee from the same seat and lost to Usha Devi by 32,148 and 20,635 votes respectively.

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