Balasore/Jagatsinghpur: In a bid to win confidence of voters ahead of Balasore Sadar and Tirtol by-polls, BJD, BJP and CPI Friday released their star-campaigner lists.
Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has named 30-star campaigners for the polls. The list comprises of BJD president Naveen Patnaik, Pranab Prakash Das, Ananta Das, Debi Prasad Das, Satyabrata Tripath (Kuna Tripathy) among others.
Similarly, for Bharatiya Janata Dal (BJP) named Samir Mohanty, Jual Oram, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Baijayanta Jay Panda, Suresh Pujari and Raghunath Mohanty among other star campaigners who will campaign for their candidates.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) has also released the star campaigners who will campaign for their candidates in both the constituencies. They include Ashis Kanungo, Dibakar Nayak, Ramakrushna Panda, Prasant Mishra and Sura Jena among others.
Notably, BJD has declared sitting MLA Bishnu Charan Das’s son Bijaya Shankar Das as its candidate in Tirtol seat for the November 3 by-elections. The ruling party in Odisha also named Swarup Kumar Das as its candidate for by-poll to Balasore Sadar Assembly seat.
The saffron party has selected Manas Kumar Dutta for the by-election to Balasore Assembly constituency and Raj Kishore Behera for Tirtol Assembly by-poll in Jagatsinghpur district.
On the other hand, Congress has fielded Mamata Kundu for Balasore Sadar and Himanshu Bhusan Mallick or Tirtol Assembly seat.
Earlier, a gazette notification was issued for the by-polls October 9. Election Commission of India (ECI) has set October 16 as the last date for filing nomination forms. The scrutiny of nominations will take place October 17. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw their candidature by October 19. Votes will be counted November 10.
It may be mentioned here that, the by-elections for the two Assembly seats were needed after the demise of former Balasore MLA Madan Mohan Dutta and Tirtol ex-MLA Bishnu Charan Das.
PNN
