Athgarh bypoll: BJD, BJP line up star campaigner

BHUBANESWAR: As the campaigning for the Athgarh byelection intensifies, the BJD and the BJP have submitted lists of their star campaigners to the chief electoral officer (CEO). Besides Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra, the BJD list has names of 12 ministers, 14 MLAs and seven MPs. Sources, however, maintained that the list does not have the name of Forest and Environment Minister Debi Prasad Mishra who represents the neighbouring Badamba constituency. Naveen will campaign for a day on Tuesday in the constituency while Mohapatra is likely to do it for a longer period. The party is leaving no stone unturned for the victory of its candidate Ranendra Pratap Swain in the bypoll.  The Congress, which is yet to submit its list of star campaigners, has decided to unleash a high-voltage campaign. Former Union minister and Odisha in-charge Jagdish Tytler, two AICC secretaries __ Mirza Irshad Baig and Vinay Sorake __ OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik, Leader of the Opposition Bhupinder Singh and other senior leaders are expected to campaign for the party candidate Suresh Mohapatra. The list of star campaigners, submitted by the BJP, has names of several national leaders, including president Nitin Gadkari, LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley. But most of them are not likely to campaign. The campaign for the party candidate Bikram Dash will be spearheaded by State president Jual Oram. Leader of the BJP Legislature Party KV Singhdeo, former minister Bijay Mohapatra, former State presidents Suresh Pujari and Bimbadhar Kuanr, former minister Biswabhusan Harichandan, State vice-president Ashok Sahu and other senior leaders will campaign. Sources said Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand chief ministers Raman Singh and Arjun Munda are likely to campaign for the BJP candidate. With the success in the Zilla Parishad polls, an upbeat BJD’s plank will be development issues and growing irrelevance of the Congress and the BJP across the country after the polls in five states. The impression that Swain had been wronged in the last election, which led to rejection of his nomination papers during scrutiny, will also work in his favour. The Opposition campaign will centre around corruption charges against the Naveen Government and growing ‘atrocities against women’, including headline-grabber Pipili case, in the State.