Patnaik files nomination from Hinjili Assembly seat

Berhampur (Odisha), Apr 30 (PTI) Ruling Biju Janata Dal president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday filed his nomination papers for the Odisha assembly elections from Hinjili seat in Ganjam district.

Accompanied by ministers and party leaders including his close aide V K Pandian, the chief minister reached the sub-collector’s office at Chhatrapur and submitted his papers for the sixth time seeking re-election from the Hinjili assembly segment.

Patnaik has earlier been elected as a legislator from the Hinjili assembly seat five times in a row since 2000.

Hinjili will go to the polls on May 20.

Along with Hinjili, Patnaik, this time will also contest from Kantabanji in Bolangir district.

Patnaik had won the Hinjili seat for the first time in 2000 by a margin of 29,826 votes. In 2004, his winning margin increased to 42,642 and in the 2009 and 2014 elections, it went up to 61,773 and 76,586, respectively.

In 2019, he won the seat by a margin of 60,160 votes. In all these elections, Patnaik’s vote share has never dropped below 65 per cent, official sources said.

Earlier, Patnaik sought blessings at Maa Tara Tarini, the presiding deity of the locality ahead of filing nominations for the election.

Meanwhile, BJD candidate from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat Pranab Prakash Das, who is also the organizational secretary of the BJD, also filed his nomination paper for the Lok Sabha elections from Sambalpur seat.

Patnaik wished Pranab Prakash Das, who is popularly called ‘Bobby’. “All the best Bobby. I am sure you will win,” the BJD chief said in a video message to Das, who has been pitted by the ruling party against BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Sambalpur.

BJD vice-president Debi Prasad Mishra also filed his nomination papers from the Badamba assembly segment in Cuttack district.

Former India Hockey captain Dilip Tirkey also filed his nomination papers from the Sundergarh Lok Sabha seat as BJD candidate.