The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Thursday announced the names of its 40 star campaigners, including Chief Minister and party supremo Naveen Patnaik who will campaign for BJD candidate Rita Sahu for the Bijepur Assembly by-election in Bargarh district scheduled to be held on February 24.
Patnaik would campaign for Sahu in Gaisilet and Barpali blocks on February 19 and 21, respectively, party sources said.
As many as 27 MlAs, including Ministers and six MPs of the party are among the 40 star campaigners.
The names include Bed Prakash Agarwal, Surjya Narayan Patro, Ananga Udaya Singh Deo, Tathagata Satpathy, Pratap Jena, Bikram Keshari Arukh, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Pratap Deb, Siddhanta Mahapatra, Anubhav Mohanty, Akash Das Nayak, Munna Khan, Arindam Roy, Kuna Tripathy, Rohit Pujari, Raseswari Panigrahi, Prashant Jagdev, Rajendra Sahu, Byomkesh Ray, Pranab Balabantaray, Dibyashankar Mishra, Pushpendra Singh Deo, Priti Ranjan Ghadei, Debashish Nayak, Samer Das, Umakanta Samantaray, Braja Pradhan, Sanjeev Sahu and Pramila Mallick.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is yet to formally announce the names of its star campaigners for Bijepur though the party has already stated that Chief Minister Raman Singh of neighbouring State of Chhattisgarh would tour the constituency for two days to campaign for party candidate Ashok Panigrahi. Some Union Ministers would also come as campaigners for the party, BJP sources have stated.
The Congress is yet to indicate whether it would release any names of its main campaigners. But the most of the party’s State leaders, including PCC president Prasad Harichandan, would devote several days to campaign for party nominee Pranay Sahu, party sources said.
As was evident on the day of Pranay Sahu’s filing of nomination papers, the otherwise-faction-ridden State Congress appears united in facing the Bijepur challenge by the BJD and the BJP.