Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today announced its third list of nine candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls in Odisha.

The Naveen Patnaik-led party had earlier announced altogether 99 candidates for the 2024 Assembly polls in two phases.

The party has fielded former MLA Prakash Behera from Barabati-Cuttack Assembly seat. Behera had joined the BJD after quitting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Odisha a few days ago. Behera had been elected to Odisha Assembly from Salipur seat on a Congress ticket in 2014.

Behera had quitted the Congress party and joined BJP ahead of the 2019 Assembly polls in the state. He had unsuccessfully contested from the Salipur Assembly seat on a BJP ticket in 2019.

The BJD has re-nominated Salipur MLA Prasant Behera for the upcoming Assembly polls from the same seat.

Rourkela MLA and minister Sarada Nayak also got re-nomination from BJD to contest the 2024 Assembly polls from the same constituency.

The ruling party has nominated Rohit J Tirkey, son of former MLA George Tirkey, from Biramitrapur Assembly seat in Sundargarh district. Rohit had joined the BJD recently.

The BJD has so far announced its candidates for 108 Assembly constituencies of the total 147 in Odisha for the upcoming polls.

The list of 9 BJD candidates for 2024 Assembly polls:   

Rengali: Sudarshan Haripal

Rourkela: Sarada P Nayak

Biramitrapur: Rohit J Tirkey

Keonjhar: Meena Majhi

Rairangpur: Raisin Murmu

Balasore: Swarup Das

Barabati-Cuttack: Prakash Behera

Salipur: Prasant Behera

Jayadev: Naba Kishore Mallik