Political parties line up their star campaigners for Bijepur by-poll

Bhubaneswar: Political parties in the state are now fine-tuning their strategies to intensify their campaigns for the Bijepur by-poll scheduled to be held on February 24. They have lined up their star campaigners for Bijepur by-poll.

BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will hit BJD campaign trail and seek vote for his party candidate Rita Sahu for the forthcoming Bijepur by-polls in Bargarh district.

According to the party sources, Patnaik will campaign for the BJD candidate in Gaisilet and Barpali blocks on February 19 and in Bijepur on February 21.

Apart from Naveen, the BJD has named 39 star-campaigners for the by-polls. It included 5 Ministers, 6 MPs (including Ollywood stars Siddhanta Mohapatra and Anubhab Mohanty), 22 MLAs, 2 BJD spokespersons (Sasmit Patra and Sulochana Das) and four Ollywood actors Muna Khan, Kuna Tripathy, Arindam Ray and Srimayee Mishra.

On the other hand, the BJP has also planned to rope in several Union ministers and Chief Ministers to campaign for the Bijepur by-poll.

“Leaders like Smriti Irani, Ram Kripal Yadav, Chhattisgarh CM Raman Singh, Santosh Gangwar, Radha Mohan Singh, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and Sadhwi Niranjan Jyoti will seek votes for our nominee. Jual Oram and Dharmendra Pradhan will also take part in the campaign,” said BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma.

BJP has fielded former BJD MLA Ashok Panigrahi.

For Congress, senior party leaders like PCC president Prasad Harichandan, former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal, senior leaders Jayadev Jena, Narasingha Mishra and Tara Prasad Bahinipati will campaign for their candidate Pranaya Sahu.