Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress have released the list of its star campaigners for the bye-election to the Dhamnagar assembly constituency which is scheduled to be held on November 3.
Odisha Chief Minister-cum-BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik is among the 40 star campaigners of the party. The list comprises the names of Pranab Prakash Das, Prasanna Acharya, Debi Prasad Mishra, Manjulata Mandal, Muktikanta Mandal, Byomkesh Ray and others.
BJP’s National General Secretary and State in-charge Arun Singh has sent a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar with the names of 40 star campaigners.
Odisha BJP President Samir Mohanty along with three union ministers- Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Bisweswar Tudu, BJP National Vice-President Baijayant Panda, LoP Jayanarayan Mishra, and senior leaders Sunil Bansal, Sambit Patra, Jual Oram and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi have been named as star campaigners.
The Congress has released the name of 30 leaders as its star campaigners for Dhamnagar bypoll. AICC Odisha In-charge A Chella Kumar, co-incharge Rudra Raju, OPCC Chief Sarat Patnaik, three ex-presidents – Niranjan Patnaik, Jayadev Jena, Prasad Harichandan have been named a star campaigners.
Among others, the names of Chiranjib Biswal, Bhakta Charan Das, Saptagiri Sankar Ullaka, and several MLAs including Suresh Routray, and Tara Prasad Bahinipati feature in the list. MLA Md Moquim has been excluded.
The bye-election was necessitated after the death of Dhamnagar MLA Bishnu Sethi. The BJP has fielded Sethi’s son Suryavanshi Suraj Sthitaprajna as its candidate. Congress has chosen Baba Harekrushna Sethi while BJD has named Abanti Das.
