Odisha Cong chief not to contest

The Congress high command made this announcement on Friday, ending weeks of speculation on whether Singhdeo would enter the fray for the Kamakhyanagar Assembly or Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat. 

Orissa Cong chief Singhdeo who was denied a ticket from Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seat, did not show his keenness in fighting the Assembly election from the Kamakhyanagar seat. "The decision was taken by the party leadership in consultation with me and others because of strategic reasons," Singhdeo told.

Congress sources said Singhdeo, who took over charge of  Orissa state Congress in January last, is constrained for time to electioneer and had he contested the polls then it could have become very difficult for him to handle state affairs. "There are numerous examples in the past like Bhupinder Singh Hooda (Haryana), B C Khanduri (Uttarakhand) who had not contested the polls but after on becoming the chief minister entered the Assembly through a byelection," a Congress leader said, adding, "K P Singhdeo is apparently aiming to repeat the 1995 formula adopted by J B Patnaik, who had become CM and then won a bypoll." 
. 
After much dithering, the Congress changed its nominees for nine seats. The new candidates are Deepti Kanta Mohapatra (Nilgiri), Naba Kishore Samal (Bari), Kangali Charan Panda (Dharmasala), Shatrughan Jena (Kamakhyanagar), Laxmidhar Sahu (Parjanga), Bibhudendra Pratap Das (Pallahara), Artatran Mallick (Niali), Pramod Kumar Jena (Paradeep) and Pipili (Judhishtir Samantaray).