BJP puts speculation to rest, to field former BJD leader Sanat Gadtia against Naveen Patnaik in Bijepur

New Delhi: The BJP on Monday released names of four more Lok Sabha election candidates and announced its nominee for Odisha’s Bijepur assembly constituency, the second seat from where Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is contesting the state polls . With this list, the party has announced names of 310 candidates for the general elections. [caption id=“attachment_5036611” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] Two Lok Sabha poll candidates are for Karnataka and one each for Assam and Uttar Pradesh. In Karnataka, the BJP has fielded Ashawat Narain from Bangalore Rural and Tejaswi Surya from Bangalore South. Rajveer Singh Balmiki has been fielded from Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras (SC) Lok Sabha seat and Rupak Sharma from Nowgong in Assam BJP’s Sanat Gadtia will contest against chief minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik in Bijepur in the Odisha polls, which will be held simultaneously in the state with the parliamentary elections. Gadtia began his political journey with the BJP but had left the party to join the BJD, only to return to BJP once again. Patnaik, who is seeking a fifth consecutive term in office, is fighting the assembly polls from his home turf Hinjli and a second seat, Bijepur, in western Odisha. The BJD on Sunday had announced the names of candidates for nine assembly constituencies for the upcoming elections, six days after the party released the first list of candidates on 18 March. While sitting party legislators Raseswari Panigrahi and Rohit Pujari have been renominated for Sambalpur and Rairakhol assembly constituencies, former assembly speaker Kishore Mohanty has been fielded from the Brajarajnagar seat. Panigrahi happens to be the lone woman in the list of candidates released on Sunday.