Dikhyaa Mohanty 
The BJD’s ticket selection process for the 2019 Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections began with a meeting with Puri district officials here, amidst the ongoing anxiety over an alliance with the BJP in Odisha.
Arun Sahu, Rudra Maharathy, Uma Samantaray, and Satyanarayana Pradhan, four Puri lawmakers, and Rajya Sabha member Subhashis Khuntia arrived at Naveen Nivas, the home of party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar, this morning, according to reports. There were also Puri observer and Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain, BJD organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, and former Bramhagiri MLA Sanjay Das Burma.
One of the BJP and BJD’s acknowledged points of dispute in the coalition negotiations was the Puri Parliamentary constituency. Given the importance of the Shree Jagannath Temple and their powerful organisation, neither party wanted to lose this Lok Sabha seat. Pinaki Mishra of BJD is currently Puri MP. He narrowly defeated Sambit Patra, the national spokesperson for the BJP, in 2019 by fewer than 12,000 votes. Sambit is eager to return to the political race and has been frequently visiting the constituency, whereas Pinaki is supposedly hesitant to run this time and has not been particularly active in the community. Prior to alliance talks, speculation abounded that former IPS officer and BJD leader Arup Patnaik would contest for Puri Lok Sabha in case Pinaki dropped out.
Following the 2019 elections, the BJD had MLAs in five of the seven Assembly seats under this Parliamentary constituency. But the current Chilika MLA, Prasanta Jagadev, just joined the saffron brigade after being kicked out of the regional party in 2022.
