BHUBANESWAR: Even as the Congress team for scouting a suitable candidate for bypoll to Bijepur assembly constituency reached Bargarh today, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) distributed responsibilities among senior leaders to ensure victory for party candidate Rita Sahu who will file her nomination papers on
February 5. The BJP candidate Ashok Panigrahi is likely to file his nomination papers on February 2.
President of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Prasad Harichandan said the party candidate will be announced soon. “A team has gone to the constituency and submit report which will be
sent to the high command. The candidate will be announced soon,” he said.
Congress has constituted a committee, headed by veteran leader and former Chief Minister Hemananda Biswal, to select its candidate. While the BJD and BJP have declared their candidates for the bypoll,
the Congress is yet to announce its nominee for Bijepur, which has been its traditional bastion.
Meanwhile, senior leader and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya and minister for steel and mines Prafulla Mallik have been appointed by the BJD to oversee campaign and other arrangements for the
by-poll. While industries minister Niranjan Pujari and former minister Prashant Nanda will be in-charge of Gaisilet block, minister of state for labour Sushant Singh and former minister Pranab Prakash Das have been given charge of Bijepur block. Former minister Sanjay Dasburma and party MLA Debesh Acharya have been kept in charge of Barpali block.
The process of filing nominations for the bypoll has started, after the Election Commission of India (ECI) issued a gazette notification. The bypoll is being considered as an acid test for the three major political parties in the state -- BJD, BJP and Congress -- ahead of the Assembly polls and Lok Sabha elections, due next year.
Voting for the bypoll which was necessitated following the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu on August 22 last, is scheduled to be held on February 24. The filing of nominations would continue till
February 6. While scrutiny of the nomination papers would be held on February 7, the last date for withdrawal of candidature is February 9. Counting of votes is scheduled to be held on February 28.
Arrangements have been made for use of VVPAT (Voter-verified Paper Audit Trail) machine along with EVMs during the bypoll. All booths in Bijepur assembly segment will have VVPATs, which will release
paper slips for the voters. That will act as a receipt and confirm the symbol they have voted for.