Ruling Biju Janata Dal president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, BJP leaders and Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bisheswar Tudu, AICC Odisha in-charge A Chella Kumar and others were among the star campaigners of the BJD, BJP and Congress for the Dhamnagar by-elections scheduled to be held on November 3.
The three parties have separately submitted the list of their star campaigners to the office of the Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) here. While BJD and BJP’s star campaigner list comprises 40 names each, the Congress has 30 leaders to campaign for its candidate Baba Harekrushna Sethi.
Patnaik, who refrained from campaigning in two previous by-elections at Pipili and Brajarajnagar, however, this time will hit the campaigning trail as the regional party has been facing challenge from a rebel candidate.
"The party candidates had won the two previous by-polls even as the BJD president did not campaign. However, this time round, the situation is different. The Dhamnagar seat was held by BJP in 2019 elections. The BJD had lost the polls by over 4,000 votes," a senior leader said, adding that this time round the BJD’s official candidate Abanti Das is facing party’s rebel candidate and former MLA Rajendra Das.
Patnaik will go to Dhamnagar for campaigning, the senior party leader said, adding that the party has kept School and Mass Education Minister SR Dash away from campaigning as he is in the eye of the storm over the death of BJD’s Zilla Parishad member Dharmendra Sahoo of Puri district.
Similarly, the regional party also did not include name of Ollywood superstar and Kendrapara MP Anubhav Mohanty in the list of campaigners. Mohanty has been accused of harassing his actress wife Varsha Priyadarshini. Several cases are pending in court against Mohanty.
However, two Odia film stars like Akash Dasnayak and Arindam Ray would campaign for BJD candidate Abanti Das.
The by-elections in Dhamnagar has all of a sudden became interesting after disgruntled BJD leader and former MLA Rajendra Das filed nomination papers.
The election will now become a four-horse race with BJP’s Suryavanshi Suraj and Congress’ Baba Harekrushna Sethi in the fray besides BJD’s Abanti Das and rebel candidate Rajendra Das.
The BJD while playing the woman card, has fielded Abanti Das, a protege of Rajendra Das, from the constituency to counter the sympathy wave in favour of the Suryavanshi Suraj, son of Bishnu Sethi whose demise on September 19 necessitated the by-election.
Meanwhile, the Dhamnagar by-poll has become more interesting after BJP’s late MLA B C Sethi’s nephew Subhranaran Sethi, also filed nomination as an Independent candidate on the last moment on Friday.
Besides three Union Ministers, the BJP has also decided to engage party’s MLAs, MPs and Odisha in-charge Sunil Bansal, D Purandeswari, state president Samir Mohanty, Leader of Opposition JN Mishra in the list of star campaigners.
Apart from Chella Kumar, the Congress’s 30 star campaigners list include Odisha co-in charge Rudra Raju, OPCC president Sarat Pattanayak, and Suresh Routray, and Tara Bahinipati.
The election will be held on November 3 and the counting of votes will be held on November 6.
-With PTI Input
