The 2024 Lok Sabha and the Assembly elections will be held simultaneously in Odisha in four phases. The counting of votes will take place on June 4. Odisha, which has 21 parliamentary constituencies, was once a stronghold of the Congress-led UPA. However, the party has witnessed a significant decline in the past few general elections. The BJP, on the other hand, also faced tough competition in the state ever since the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) parted ways from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2009.
The outcomes of the Lok Sabha polls in Odisha can have a major impact not only on the state but also on the formation of government at the Centre.
In 2019, the BJD won 12 of the 21 seats in the state and secured a 42.8% vote share. The BJP stood second and registered victory in eight seats. The saffron party got 38.4% votes. The Congress managed to get only one seat with a 13.4% vote share.
Ahead of the 2024 general elections, the BJP and BJD discussed the prospects of a pre-poll alliance but it didn’t materialise. BJP's state president Manmohan Samal on March 22 made it clear that the saffron party would contest alone in all the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Odisha.
As a result, Odisha will once again witness a three-way contest in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections between the BJD, the BJP and the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
Odisha Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voting dates
In Odisha, polling for the general elections and 147-member Assembly will be held in the last four phases. Twenty-eight Assembly seats and 4 Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls on May 13, followed by 35 Assembly seats and 5 Lok Sabha constituencies on May 20, 42 Assembly segments and 6 Lok Sabha seats on May 25 and the remaining 42 Assembly seats and 6 Lok Sabha constituencies on June 1
Last time, the state witnessed a voter turnout of 73.29%.
Odisha Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Total seats
Odisha has a total of 21 parliamentary constituencies, of which three seats are reserved for SC candidates and five for ST candidates. The rest of the seats are unreserved.
Odisha Lok Sabha Elections 2024: BJP candidates
After winning eight of 21 seats in Odisha in 2019, the BJP is eager to improve its tally in the state and is going all out against the BJD and the Congress-led INDIA bloc.
Here's a list of BJP candidates announced so far in the state for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections:
| S. No. | Lok Sabha constituencies | BJP candidates |
| 1 | Bargarh | Pradeep Purohit |
| 2 | Sundargarh (ST) | Jual Oram |
| 3 | Sambalpur | Dharmendra Pradhan |
| 4 | Keonjhar (ST) | Ananta Nayak |
| 5 | Mayurbhanj (ST) | Naba Charan Majhi |
| 6 | Balasore | Pratap Chandra Sarangi |
| 7 | Bhadrak (SC) | Avimanyu Sethi |
| 8 | Jajpur (SC) | |
| 9 | Dhenkanal | Rudra Narayan Pany |
| 10 | Bolangir | Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo |
| 11 | Kalahandi | Malvika Keshari Deo |
| 12 | Nabarangpur (ST) | Balabhadra Majhi |
| 13 | Kandhamal | |
| 14 | Cuttack | |
| 15 | Kendrapara | Baijayant 'Jay' Panda |
| 16 | Jagatsinghpur (SC) | Bibhu Prasad Tarai |
| 17 | Puri | Dr Sambit Patra |
| 18 | Bhubaneswar | Aparajita Sarangi |
| 19 | Aska | Anita Subhadarshini |
| 20 | Berhampur | Pradeep Kumar Panigrahy |
| 21 | Koraput (SC) | Kaleram Majhi |
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
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