Jajpur, Oct 11: Like the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the ruling BJD is mulling to field women candidates in 33 percent of constituencies of Odisha Assembly in 2024.
In Jajpur, the party is planning to field women candidates in two or three seats where the existing MLAs are to be replaced.
The party had fielded women candidates in Binjharpur and Bari Assembly constituencies and Jajpur Lok Sabha seat in 2019.
Now the party has decided to field Biswaranjan Mallick replacing Sunanda Das in Bari and Pramila Mallick is all set to contest from Binjharpur, who recently became Speaker of Odisha Assembly.
In this case, the party is mulling to field woman candidates in another one or two constituencies to manage the 33 percent reservation for women.
According to party insiders, Jajpur MLA Pranab Prakash Das will contest from Korei and a woman candidate will be fielded for the Jajpur seat.
Besides Jajpur and Binjharpur, the party will field woman candidates in one of the other five seats - Korei, Sukinda, Dharmasala, Barachana, and Bari.
According to the party insiders, Pranab Prakash Das will fight from Korei, Preeti Ranjan Gharai from Sukinda, and Pranab Balabanta Ray from Dharmasala. One of the rest two seats – Barachana and Bari is most likely to be reserved for a woman candidate.
Former BJP leader Biswaranjan Mallick has been promised candidature from Bari before joining BJD. So the party is most likely to field a woman candidate in Barchana.
