Sambit Patra to contest from Puri as BJP announces second list

Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 23

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra is the party candidate from the prestigious Puri Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha. His name figured in its second list of candidates released in the wee hours of Saturday.

The list contains 36 names, including 23 for Andhra Pradesh where polling will be held in the first phase on April 11, six for Maharashtra and five for Odisha. One candidate each for Assam and Meghalaya has been announced.

The highlight is that Patra will contest the election from the temple town of Puri for which earlier the name of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was doing the rounds. 

Odisha figures high on the BJP’s agenda. In 2014, Odisha was among the states that remained untouched by the Modi wave. The BJP won just one of the 21 seats in the last elections while Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) took the rest.

In the past five years, the BJP has been working hard to make inroads in the state. Its first list released on Thursday had the freshly minted BJP leader, Jay Panda from  Kendrapara and former IAS officer Aparajita Sarangi contesting from Bhubaneswar. 

The leadership has been careful in selection of candidates and Patra being given Puri makes him an interesting choice. The firebrand spokesperson is known for his no-holds-barred comments when it comes to defending the BJP on national channels and is a known face.

A doctor by profession, he is currently an independent director on the board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC). 

He was appointed the spokesperson for the Delhi unit of the BJP and in the run-up to the general election in 2014 he gained visibility on national television. 

When the BJP came to power, Patra was made the national spokesperson.