The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Monday fielded two women as candidates in the Odisha Assembly elections instead of their husbands who were incumbent MLAs in the outgoing Assembly.

With this, the number of women candidates fielded by the party for Assembly election has gone up to 33. The state has 147 Assembly seats of which the party is yet to announce names of contestants for six more seats.

The regional party released its seventh list of candidates for the crucial 2024 elections by announcing the names of candidates for six more Assembly seats.

With the latest announcement, the party has so far fielded candidates for 141 seats out of the total 147 Assembly constituencies. Of the six candidates, five are new faces, who will make their electoral debut in the upcoming Assembly polls.

The party replaced two sitting MLAs with their wives. Four sitting MLAs were also denied tickets.

Bangiriposhi MLA Sudam Marndi, a minister of cabinet rank in the government, was earlier nominated to contest Lok SAbha polls. The party has now fielded the veteran politician’s wife from the seat. The party dumped Raghunathpalli MLA and former minister Subrat Tarai while fielding his wife from the seat.

The BJD has named all the candidates for 21 Lok Sabha seats with seven of them being women contestants.

The regional party, riding on the charisma of Naveen Patnaik and firmly ensconced in power in the State since 2000, has so far fielded 33 women as candidates which is an indicator that 23 per cent of contestants for the Assembly polls are women.

Earlier last week, the BJD kept its promise to ensure that 33 per cent of its candidates were women from the 21 Lok Sabha seats.

In 2019 LS polls, BJD emerged victorious in 12 of the 21 seats while the BJP won eight seats. The Congress won one seat only. Five of the seven women candidates who fought on the BJD ticket in 2019 LS polls tasted victory.

It may be recalled here that only 21 women fought Assembly polls in 2019 out of the 147 seats. It is being speculated that BJD may nominate more women as candidates from the 6 unannounced assembly seats.

As it has been found earlier in the past elections, women voters are likely to play a decisive role in the final outcome of Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Odisha. The tilting of women voters will decide the fate of candidates and parties. The coastal state has 3.35 crore voters of which 1.65 crore are women. If the analysts are to be believed, the BJD had successfully galvanized the majority of women to vote in their favour in the past Assembly polls.

However, the Naveen Patnaik government has faced flak from different quarters including BJP and Congress, for laying emphasis on filling State exchequer from liquor-generated revenue. Many tend to believe that manifold increase in liquor consumption has left the women in dire straits with crime against them soaring in Odisha.

The regional party has however, left no stone unturned to woo the women voters by a series of women-centric populist measures to maintain its stranglehold over them.