BHUBANESHWAR: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) designated Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as one of its 40 star campaigners for the May 31 bypoll in Jharsuguda district's Brajrajnagar assembly segment.
The regional party made the declaration after the opposition Congress and BJP requested Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Chief Minister Raman Singh to campaign for their respective parties' candidates in the Brajrajnagar assembly seat.
Party sources say Patnaik, who did not campaign in past by-elections in Pipili, Tirtol, and Balasore assembly seats, may do so this time.
Alaka Mohanty of the BJD, former BJP MLA Radharani Panda, and Congress' Kishore Patel are all expected to fight for the Brajrajnagar Assembly seat. Arindam Roy and Akash Das Nayak, two Odia film stars, were among the BJD's star campaigners, in addition to Patnaik. Odisha ministers Niranjan Pujari, Pratap Jena, Arun Kumar Sahoo, Samir Ranjan Dash, Naba Kishore Das, Susant Singh, Tukuni Sahu, D S Mishra, and Cuttack Mayor Subhas Singh are among the other BJD star campaigners. Five Union Ministers are named on the BJP's star campaigner list: Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Pralhad Joshi, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Biseswar Tudu.
Bhupesh Baghel, the Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, and Kanhaiya Kumar, the Congress candidate, will campaign for Kishore Patel.
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