BHUBANESWAR: With BJD rebel Rajendra Das all set to spoil the pitch of the official candidate in the Dhamnagar bypoll, the ruling party’s campaign will be led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to nullify any division in the cadre that may impact its poll prospect.
The Chief Minister who did not campaign personally in four out of five by-elections to Balasore, Tirtol, Pipili and Brajarajnagar figured in the 40-member star campaigners list released by the BJD, which proves that the party does not want to take any risk in the four cornered contest for the November 3 bypoll.
The BJD had comfortably won all the by-elections and improved its number in the Assembly by snatching the Balasore seat from the BJP notwithstanding the fact that the Chief Minister had conducted virtual rallies due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
School and Mass Education Minister Samir Ranjan Dash, who is in the thick of controversy over his suspected role in the alleged suicide of BJD zilla parishad member Dharmendra Sahoo, did not figure in the campaigners’ list.
Similarly, Kendrapara MP and Odia cine star Anubhav Mohanty who has fallen from grace of the party supremo ever since his discord with actor wife became a public drama, has been sidelined .
The party has taken care not to give an opportunity to its opponents to gain electoral benefit through negative campaign. Curiously, senior party leader and former minister Pratap Jena is missing from the list while two controversial figures like former ministers Arun Sahoo and Dibya Shankar Mishra have made it to the list.
Notably, former MLA and aspirant for party ticket for the by-election Muktikanta Mandal has been given the star campaigner tag along with his MP wife Manjulata Mandal.Apart from nine ministers, all the top guns of the BJD are in the star campaigners’ list.
On the other hand, the Congress has excluded Mohammed Moquim from its list of 30 star campaigners. The Barabati-Cuttack MLA seems to have fallen from grace after voting against the party’s wish in the Presidential poll and his conviction in housing loan fraud case.
While the BJP has named 40 star campaigners including State BJP president Samir Mohanty, three Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Bishweswar Tudu, Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi, national spokesperson Sambit Patra, national general secretaries Sunil Bansal and D Purandeswari.