Odisha Assembly Election 2019: BJD, BJP, Congress fight for 147 seats

Odisha is one of the four states that are going to conduct Assembly Elections 2019 simultaneously with the Lok Sabha Elections 2019. Along with Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh will also be conducting its Assembly polls, the results of which will be announced on May 23.

In Odisha, there are 147 Assembly seats for grabs. The Assembly Election 2019 in Odisha will be conducted in four phases, along with the four phases of the Lok Sabha polls.

Odisha Assembly Election 2019 dates

Phase 1 of Odisha Assembly Election 2019 will take place on April 11, the same day Phase 1 of the Lok Sabha Election 2019 is scheduled to take place. On the first phase, 28 Assembly constituencies will go to polls.

Phase 2 of Odisha Assembly Election 2019 will take place on April 18, Phase 3 on April 23 and Phase 4 on April 29. The number of assembly constituencies that will go to polls on Phase 2 is 35 and 42 constituencies each will go to polls on the third and fourth phases, completing the polls in 147 constituencies in Odisha.

The results of the Assembly Elections 2019 of all the four phases will be declared on May 23.

Major parties in Odisha Assembly Election 2019

The dominant party in the state of Odisha is incumbent Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik-helmed Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The BJD-supremo Patnaik has been serving as the Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive term now. In the previous elections, out of the 147 Assembly seats, the dominant party secured 118 seats, followed by 15 seats by Congress, 10 seats by Bharatiya Janata Party, 2 seats by independent candidates and 1 each by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Samata Kranti Dal.

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Candidates for Odisha Assembly Election 2019

The BJD party has released names of all 147 candidates for the Assembly Election 2019. Patnaik recently named Shashi Bhusan Behera as the candidate from Kendrapada Assembly constituency. Behera is the current Finance Minister of the state.

On March 22, the BJP had released its list of 100 candidates for the Assembly polls. Some of the candidates fielded by the BJP for the elections are Damodar Rout, Kusum Tete, Prakash Behera, K Narayan Rao.

As for the Congress, the party is struggling to field its candidates. The party had fielded 27 new faces on its first list of 36 candidates. Separately, a couple of candidates had withdrawn their candidature. Sitakant Mohapatra, a three-time former MLA had withdrawn his candidature. He said that his name was announced on April 7 while the last date of filing nomination is April 9, and adding that he has little time to reach out to the voters. There has also been dissent over alleged irregularities in distribution of tickets.

Also read: Lok Sabha Election 2019: Poll dates, full schedule, Voting FAQs, election results, constituencies' details

Also read: Complete list of state-wise Lok Sabha election 2019 dates: EC announces 7-phase poll, result on May 23