BHUBANESWAR : The BJD on Wednesday constituted three committees for the Nuapada by-elections, scheduled on November 11. The bypoll has been necessitated after the death of former minister Rajendra Dholakia, who was elected from the constituency four times, three times as BJD candidate in 2009, 2019 and 2024, and as an Independent in 2004. Sources said Dholakia’s son, Jay Dholakia is likely to be fielded by the BJD for the bypoll.
Sources in the BJD further informed that as party president Naveen Patnaik is unlikely to campaign physically, a six-member steering committee, comprising deputy leader of the Opposition Prasanna Acharya, Rajya Sabha MP Niranjan Bisi, former minister and sitting MLA Niranjan Pujari, president of the Biju Mahila Janata Dal Snehangini Chhuria, former minister Tukuni Sahoo and former MLA Ayub Khan will be in overall charge of campaigning.
A zonal committee comprising two ULB zones and six zilla parishad zones have been formed for election management. While party MLAs Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo and Sarada Nayak will be in charge of Nuapada NAC, former minister Rohit Pujari and former MLA Bikram Panda will be in charge of Khariar NAC. Former minister Sudam Marandi, former MP Pradip Majhi, and former MLAs Debesh Acharya, Saroj Meher, Jogesh Singh and Manohar Randhari will be in charge of one ZP zone each.
The BJD has also formed a three-member local committee, including Adhiraj Panigrahi, to be in charge of day-to-day management of the election campaign for the party. Sources in the party claimed that the three committees will take charge of the election management at the three levels to reach all the voters in the constituency.