Bhubaneswar, May 3 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday declared its last list of candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections in Odisha.

The party had earlier announced the names of candidates for 146 out of 147 Assembly seats.

On Friday, the BJP declared its nominee for the Nilgiri Assembly seat. Former Biju Janata Dal leader Santosh Khatua has been named as the party's candidate for the Nilgiri constituency.

Khatua on Thursday resigned from BJD immediately after the ex-BJP leader and sitting MLA Sukanta Kumar Nayak was nominated by the ruling party for the Nilgiri seat. Khatua contested the last Assembly elections in 2019 from the same constituency as a BJD candidate. However, he lost to BJP candidate Nayak by a margin of only 1,577 votes.

Both the ruling BJD and principal opposition BJP have announced candidates for all 21 Lok Sabha and 147 Assembly constituencies of the state.

Notably, Assembly and Lok Sabha elections will be held simultaneously in Odisha in four phases from May 13 to June 1. The results of the polling for both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha will be out on June 4.