With an aim to announce the candidates’ list in the last week of February ahead of the lok Sabha polls, the AICC Central Election Committee (CEC) will hold its first meeting on Monday in New Delhi to finalise the names of the candidates for all 21 lok Sabha seats in the State.
The CEC, which includes Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi, would decide the candidates’ list earlier sent by the Pradesh Election Committee (PEC).
The PEC has recommended the names of Union Minister Srikant Jena for Baleswar, former Union Minister Chandrasekhar Sahu for Brahmapur, loknath Rath for Aska, incumbent MPs Pradip Majhi for Nabarangpur, Bhakta Charan Das for Kalahandi and Amar Pradhan for Sambalpur, actress Aparajita Mohanty for Cuttack, actor Bijoy Mohanty for Bhubaneswar, Dolagobinda Nayak for Kendrapada, Ashok Das for Jajpur, Anant Sethy or Sangram Jena for Bhadrak, Harihar Karan for Kandhamal, Santosh Mohan Dev for Puri, Sarat Pattanaik for Balangir, Bijay Toppo for Sundargarh, KP Singh Deo for Dhenkanal, Shayamsundar Hansda for Mayurbhanj, Kishore Patel for Bargarh, Pratima Mallick for Jagatsinghpur and Madhab Patnaik for Keonjhar.
The PEC has dropped the names of two sitting MPs, Hemanand Biswal (Sundargarh) and Sanjay Bhoi (Bargarh) in its list, sources said.