BJD’s Deepali Das Files Nomination For Jharsuguda Bypoll In Odisha

Jharsuguda: Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Deepali Das, daughter of slain Minister Naba Kishore Das, on Tuesday filed her nomination for the by-election to Odisha’s Jharsuguda Assembly constituency slated to be held on May 10.

The ruling BJD organised a grand procession to the sub-collector’s office where Deepali filed her nomination papers in the presence of a host of senior party leaders and supporters.

Before proceeding in the procession, Deepali visited the temple of Patneshwari to offer prayers and seek blessings of the goddess. Thousands of BJD workers and supporters joined the rally taken out from Manmohan school ground

A host of senior leaders including several ministers accompanied her during filing of nomination.  Apart from party observer Prasanna Acharya, senior leaders like Debi Prasad Mishra, Pratap Jena, Snehangini Chhuria, Rita Sahu and Sharada Nayak were present.

Deepali had collected the party ticket on April 15 from BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik.

It may be noted here that BJP’s Tankadhar Tripathy and Congress candidate Tarun Pandey have already filed their nomination papers for the by-election.

All three major parties in the state have fielded debutants in the bypoll, which most probably is the last before the next assembly elections in Odisha and is likely to set the tone for the ‘Big Battle’ in 2024

Deepali has already been undertaking extensive tours of Jharsuguda assembly constituency and interacting with people at the grassroots apart from holding meetings and other programmes.

Once a Congress stronghold, Jharsuguda turned into a BJD bastion after after Naba Das quit the grand old party and joined the ruling outfit before the 2019 assembly election. Naba Das, who was the Congress MLA from Jharsuguda in 2009 and 2014, won the seat on a BJD ticket in 2019 to become a Minister in the Naveen Patnaik government.

The by-election is being held following the murder of Naba Das allegedly by a policeman on January 29.

While April 20 is the last date of filing nomination, the papers will be scrutinized on April 21 and the last date of withdrawal of candidature is April 24.