The nomination papers of five candidates for the November 11 Nuapada by-election in Odisha were rejected during scrutiny due to technical errors, sources in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) confirmed on Thursday.
A total of 19 candidates had initially filed nominations for the bypoll— eight representing political parties and 11 as Independents. However, during the scrutiny on Wednesday, the papers of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) nominee Rajaram Sahu, Rashtriya Parivartan Dal’s Sitaram Behera, and three Independents — Kamal Kumar Chhatria, Purusottam Behera, and Bhujabal Adabang — were rejected, leaving 14 candidates in the running. The final date for the withdrawal of nominations is October 24th.
According to the CEO's office, the nominations of Jay Dholakia (BJP), Snehangini Chhuria (BJD), Ghasiram Majhi (Congress), Ramakant Hati (Samajwadi Party), Hemant Tandi (Bahujan Mukti Party), Sukadhar Dandasena (Odisha Janata Dal) and eight Independents — Ashraya Mahanand, Chakrant Jena, Bhubanlal Sahu, Lochan Majhi, Kishore Kumar Bagh, Bhaktabandhu Dharua, Nita Bagh and Laxmikanta Tandi — were found valid.
The bypoll is widely expected to be a triangular contest between the ruling BJP, the opposition BJD, and the Congress, all of whom have already launched intensive campaigns for their respective candidates.
The bypoll is equally crucial for the BJD, which lost power after 24 years, despite having secured a higher vote share than the BJP in the 2024 assembly elections (BJD polled 40.22 per cent; BJP garnered 40.07 per cent; Congress secured around 13 per cent).
The contest became even more interesting after the BJD’s prospective candidate, Jay Dholakia—son of the late sitting MLA Rajendra Dholakia—defected to the BJP and became its nominee. Following Dholakia’s defection, the BJD fielded its women’s wing president and former minister from neighbouring Bargarh district, Snehangini Chhuria.
The Congress, led in Odisha by Bhakta Charan Das, has nominated Ghasiram Majhi, a tribal leader who polled the second-highest votes in Nuapada in the 2024 general elections. The stakes are particularly high for Das, a former MP from the Kalahandi Lok Sabha constituency, of which Nuapada forms a part.
In the 2024 assembly polls, Dholakia had won the Nuapada seat for the fourth time, securing 61,822 votes. The then Congress rebel, and now party nominee, Ghasiram Majhi, contesting as an Independent, garnered 50,941 votes. The Congress’s official candidate and then OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak polled 15,501 votes, while the BJP’s Abhinandan Panda finished third with just over 40,814 votes.
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