The Congress on Saturday introduced former Union minister Srikant Jena as its candidate for the Balasore Lok Sabha seat in Odisha in its second record of nominees for the upcoming Parliament elections within the state.
Jena will contest from Balasore, from the place he had gained in 2009 Lok Sabha election, towards former Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) candidate Pratap Sarangi and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD)’s Lekhashree Samantsinghar, who stop the BJP earlier this week.
Jena, a four-time Lok Sabha member, was expelled from the Congress in January 2019 for “anti-party” actions. Following his exit from the get together, Jena launched Samajika Nyay Abhiyan, a non-political platform that advocated for a social justice motion. Nonetheless, he got here again to the Congress final month at a programme in Delhi.
Jena started his political profession from the Janata Patry and have become an MLA within the Odisha Meeting in 1977 from Bari in Jajpur district. Later, he switched to the Congress and have become one of many key faces of the get together within the state. He was the Union minister of state for small scale business, agro and rural industries within the VP Singh authorities after which Union minister for Parliamentary affairs and tourism within the Gujaral and Deve Gowda governments. He was additionally the minister of state (unbiased cost) for chemical compounds and fertilizers and statistics and programme implementation within the UPA-II authorities beneath Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
The Congress has to date fielded candidates for 17 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. Of the remaining 4, the get together is prone to go away Aska for the Communist Occasion of India (CPI) and Mayurbhanj for the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). It’s but to announce candidates for Sambalpur and Cuttack Lok Sabha seats.
The Congress fielded its scholar wing NSUI’s state unit president Yasir Nawaz from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency. Nawaz will face the ballot battle towards the BJP’s sitting MP Aparajita Sarangi and the BJD’s Manmath Routray, the son of veteran Congress chief and Jatni MLA Suresh Routray.
For Jajpur, Bhadrak and Jagatsinghpur, it has selected veteran Congressmen Anchal Das, Anant Sethy and Rabindra Kumar Sethy, respectively. In its first record, launched on April 2, the Congress introduced its candidates for 8 Lok Sabha and 49 Meeting seats.
Starting Could 13, elections to the 147 seats within the state meeting and 21 Lok Sabha constituencies will happen on Could 13, Could 20, Could 25 and June 1.
