Polls 2024: It is “Sonrise” Time for Most Parties in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The three major political parties in Odisha have preferred to give tickets to the sons of politicians, including MPs and MLAs, to contest in the upcoming Lok Sabha and assembly polls.

Ankit Jena, son of former minister Pratap Jena has got a BJD ticket to fight the polls while his father has preferred to stay away from elections as a murder case is pending against him.

The BJD has given tickets to Souvik Biswal and Debi Ranjan Tripathy, sons of two senior BJD leaders from Cuttack district. Souvik is the son of Pravat Biswal and Debi is the son of Pravat Tripathy. Both BJD leaders have tarnished their images because of their involvement in chit-fund cases.

Joseph Trikey from Birmitrapur and Anil Barua from Rajgangpur will contest the elections on BJD tickets. Joseph is the son of tribal leader George Tirkey and Anil is the progeny of BJD leader Mangala Kishan.

Although BJD has denied ticket to Naveen Patnaik’s Doon schoolmate and former minister A.U. Singh Deo, yet latter’s son Kalikesh Singh Deo is party’s candidate from the Balangir Assembly seat.

Former Finance Minister, Prafulla Ghadai’s son Preeti Ranjan Ghadia has been given the BJD ticket for the fourth consecutive time in this election.

Sons of veterans like Ashok Das, Nalini Mohanty and Kalpataru Das who were among the staunch followers of Biju Patnaik have got tickets to contest polls.

Chinmayananda Shreerupa Deb, son of minister housing and urban development, Usha Devi, Biplab Patra, son of late Surya Naryan Patra and Sunil Mohanty, son of late Maheswar Mohanty have got BJD tickets to fight Assembly elections.

Arabind Mohapatra, son of Naveen Patnaik’s friend-turned-foe Bijoy Mohapatra has also received a BJD ticket.

The BJD has given a ticket is Manmath Routray, son of Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray to contest from the Bhubaneswar parliamentary constituency.

The Congress has also given Assembly tickets to Samarendra Mishra, son of Bolangir MLA Narasingha Mishra and Sagar Charan Das, son of former MP Bhakta Charan Das from Bolangir and Bhawanipatna respectively.

Abhinandan, the son of sitting BJP Kalahandi MP Basanta Panda, will contest from the Nuapada Assembly seat. BJP has chosen Manoranjan, the younger son of former Congress minister Chintamani Dyansamantray from Chikiti. His elder son Ravindranath has got the Congress ticket for the same seat.