Bhubaneswar: High-profile leaders including Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw will emerge as star campaigners among 20 leaders chosen by the Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of bye-elections to Pipili Assembly constituency in Puri district scheduled for September 30.
According to a BJP release, issued Tuesday, the saffron party’s star campaigners in addition to Pradhan and Vaishnaw include Samir Mohanty, Bisweswar Tudu, Baijayant Jay Panda, D. Purandareswari, Vijay Pal Singh Tomar, Jual Oram, Pratap Sarangi, Manmohan Samal, KV Singh Deo, Surama Padhy, Sambit Patra, Aparajita Sarangi, Mohan Charan Majhi, Pravati Parida, Manas Kumar Mohanty, Prithiviraj Harichandan, Golak Prasad Mohapatra and Lekhasri Samansinghar.
The BJP has fielded Ashrit Patnaik while the Biju Janata Dal has fielded Pradeep Maharathy’s son Rudrapratap Maharathy to the seat. The bye-election was earlier scheduled for May 13 and rescheduled to May 16 due to various reasons.
The bypoll was necessitated by the death of legislator Pradeep Maharathy (BJD) who represented the constituency.
