Reiterating its earlier stand, the Utkal Bharat on Wednesday announced that it would not align with any other political party in the ensuing general elections.
Taking pride of being the first political outfit for announcing its candidates' names much before the general elections, the Utkal Bharat in the first phase named 28 candidates in 15 districts for Assembly constituencies and one for the Kendrapada lok Sabha seat. The lok Sabha candidate is Narayan Prasad Jena.
"In the first phase, we have selected 28 persons for as many Assembly constituencies and one for a lok Sabha constituency. The districts include six each from western and coastal Odisha, one from southern Odisha and three from central Odisha. later, we will announce the names for rest of the Assembly and lok Sabha constituencies," said Utkal Bharat president MA Kharavel Swain.
While in Kalahandi district Judhisthir Tandi was named for Bhawanipatna Assembly constituency, Shyam Sundar Panda, Bijay Kumar Panda and Akshy Kumar Sabar were chosen for Junagarh, Dharmagarh and lanjigarh, respectively.
Kedar Tandi was named for Khariar constituency in Nuapada district, Bijay Mishra and Mohan Sundar Meher for Balangir and Patangarh constituencies in Balangir district. While Sachidananda Patra was selected for Bijepur in Bargarh district, Manabodh Bhoi was named for Redhakhol in Sambalpur district, Pradip Chand and Umakanta Panda for Bhogarai and Basta in Baleswar district. Dilip Kumar Mallick, Saroj Ranjan Dash and Bishnudatta Das were named for Kendrapada, Jajpur and Puri constituencies, respectively.
Umashankar Prasad was selected for Khurda, Dr Baikunthanth Pradhan and Jaldhar Sahoo for Bolgarh and Jatni, respectively. Jaykrushna Jena, Trinath Palatsingh, Krushna Chandra Baradand and Radhamohan Nayak were selected for Nayagarh, Ranpur, Khandapada and Daspalla, respectively.
Satyanarayan Pratika was chosen for Bissamcuttack, Debasis Nanda for Dhenkanal and Pramod Kumar Behera for Ghasipura.
laxman Sahoo, Prasanna Kumar Sahoo, Jambeswar Pattnaik and Susil Kumar Sahoo were named for Angul, Athamallick, Talcher and Pallahada in Angul district, respectively.