Odisha polls: Cong comes out with first list of 118 candidates

New Delhi: Congress today released first list of 118 candidates for the Assembly polls in Odisha and several senior leaders including PCC chief Jaydev Jena, Lalatendu B Mohapatra, Prasad Harichandan and Sarat Rout have found place. The state will have the Assembly polls along with the General elections in two phases, on April 10 and 17. Congress candidate Saroj Padhi will fight from Aska, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik constituency. [caption id=“attachment_1439783” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] Congress, which is out of power for the last 15 years in Odisha, is facing an uphill task as party stalwart and leader of opposition in the state Assembly Bhupinder Singh defected to the ruling BJD recently. The party had won 27 of the total 147 seats in the last Assembly elections. In the first list for 118 constituencies, Jena would be contesting from his home turf Anandpur while Mohapatra will be fighting to retain the Brahmagiri Assembly seat. Sarat Rout will contest from Sukinda while Harichandan will fight the elections from Satyabadi (Puri). In coastal constituencies where BJD is on a strong wicket, Congress has decided to field Chiranjeev Biswal from the key Jagatsingpur constituency, Suresh Kumar Mohapatra from Choudwar, Chandra Sekhar Samal from Cuttack Sadar and Mohammad Mouqim from Cuttack-Barabati. In Western Odisha, considered a traditional Congress stronghold, the party would be fielding Dushmanta Naik from Bhawanipatna, Narasinga Mishra from Balangir and Naba Kishore Das from the industrial town of Jharsuguda. Pravat Mohapatra would be contesting from the steel city of Rourkela. PTI