Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national spokesperson Sambit Patra will be contesting the upcoming general elections from the Puri constituency, as per a list of 36 candidates released by the party’s central election committee today (Saturday, 23 March) in a press release.
Prior to coming in the limelight through many panel discussions on national television, Patra had previously contested a municipal election on a BJP ticket in 2012 from Delhi’s Kashmere Gate, but had failed to get elected.
The constituencies which have been covered under the list are spread across five states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and Odisha.
The press release mentions that the meeting of the central election committee was chaired by the party’s national president Amit Shah. In attendance were the top leaders of the party including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several union ministers such as Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, among others.