TNI Bureau: Despite the initial reluctance, BJD’s Lok Sabha candidate Anshuman Mohanty seems to have made up his mind to join the battlefield in Kendrapara Parliamentary constituency after hectic parleys with senior leaders.

Anshuman, who was reluctant to fight the Lok Sabha polls against Jay Panda in Kendrapara and insisted on MLA ticket from Rajanagar, was persuaded to respect the decision of the party and leadership.

During the meeting with BJD President Naveen Patnaik and 5T Chairman VK Pandian, Anshuman’s bete noire Dhruv Sahoo was missing. However, senior leaders like Pratap Deb and Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak as well as Arabinda Mohapatra were present.

Interestingly, BJP Candidate Jay Panda has not yet visited the constituency after getting the nomination for Lok Sabha while other BJP candidates have hit the campaign trail.