Bhubaneswar, April 14 (Reporter) Congress has fielded former Union Minister Srikanta Jena from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat. The party has put faith in Jena, who returned to the party recently and was fielded from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat. Jena figured among the nine names announced by the Congress on Saturday for the coming Lok Sabha elections in Odisha. With this, Congress has so far announced candidates for 17 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. The BJP and the ruling BJD have announced candidates for all 21 seats. The nine names announced by the Congress included two women: former Mahila Congress President Sashmita Behera (Dhenknal) and Sucharatia Mohanty (Puri). Jena, a four-time MP, was elected twice to Lok Sabha from Cuttack and once from Kendrapara on the Janata Dal ticket. He was last elected from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat on a Congress ticket in 2009. Jena was a Union Cabinet Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Tourism in the Gujral and Deve Gowda Ministries and was the Minister of State (independent charge) for Chemicals and Fertiliser, Statistics, and Programme Implementation in the Manmohan Singh Ministries. He was also a Union Minister of State for small-scale industry, agro-, and rural industries in the VP Singh Ministry. He was also elected to the Odisha Legislative Assembly three times from the Bari-Derabisi Assembly constituency and held many important portfolios in the state cabinet. Jena will face former Union Minister Pratap Sarangi and Lekhashri Samantasinghar in Balasore. The Congress Party also fielded former MP Ananta Sethi for the Bharak Lok Sabha seat. Sethi was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bhadrak in the 2009 election and was a member of the Odisha Legislative Assembly from 2004 to 2009. Similarly, the Congress nominated National Student Union of India President Yasir Nawaz from the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat and three-time MLA Rabindra Kumar Sethy from the Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha seat. The other names announced by the Congress included Anchal Das (Jajpur), Mohan Hembram (Keonjhar), and Sidhartha Swarup Das (Kendrapara). Jena was expelled from the Congress in 2019 for anti-party activities. He returned to Congress in March 2024 after a gap of five years...////...