Dhamnagar Bypolls: Star Campaigners Announced By BJD, BJP And Congress

Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and Congress have each released a list of their top campaigners, dubbed as Star Campaigners for the November 3 byelection for the Dhamnagar assembly seat.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, leads the party’s campaigners list. Pranab Prakash Das, Prasanna Acharya, Debi Prasad Mishra, Manjulata Mandal, Muktikanta Mandal, Byomkesh Ray, and others are included on the list.

However, Kendrapada MP Anubhav Mohanty and Odisha School and Education minister Samir Dash were a few notable omissions from the list.

On the other hand, Arun Singh, the National General Secretary and State Coordinator for the BJP has also sent a letter with the names of 40 prominent campaigners to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

Three union ministers—Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Bisweswar Tudu—along with BJP National Vice-President Baijayant Panda, LoP Jayanarayan Mishra, senior leaders Sunil Bansal, Sambit Patra, Jual Oram, and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi have been named as star campaigners in the state of Odisha.

Meanwhile, the Congress party has also released a list of 30 leaders of such kind. Odisha AICC in-charge Chella Kumar, co-in charge Rudra Raju, OPCC chief Sarat Patnaik, and three former presidents—Niranjan Patnaik, Jayadev Jena, and Prasad Harichandan—have been dubbed star campaigners for the Dhamnagar byelection.

The list includes the names of various MLAs, including Tara Prasad Bahinipati and Suresh Routray, as well as Chiranjib Biswal, Bhakta Charan Das, and Saptagiri Sankar Ullaka.

It is pertinent to say here that, the Dhamnagar seat is lying vacant since September 19 following the demise of BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, who passed away while undergoing treatment at the AIIMS Bhubaneswar.