Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has declared May 10 as holiday for its employees and magisterial courts in areas under Jharsuguda Assembly constituency, which will be going to bypoll on that day.
According to the official order issued by Revenue and Disaster Management Department, the holiday has been declared to allow them to exercise their franchise.
The bypoll was necessitated by the murder of BJD MLA and cabinet minister Naba Kishore Das on January 29.
Meanwhile, the state Congress leadership has decided to launch its formal campaign for party candidate Tarun Pandey from April 25. President of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Sarat Pattanayak is camping in the constituency along with other senior leaders. Odisha in-charge A Chellakumar and Kanhaiya Kumar, the only two national leaders in its campaigners list, are likely to visit Odisha in May.
On the other hand, Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik will lead the party campaign for Deepali Das, the daughter of slain minister Naba Das. The three union ministers from the state – Dharmendra Pradhan , Ashwini Vaishaw and Bhimeswar Tudu – are in BJP’s list of 40 star campaigners. Tankadhar Tripathy is the party nominee.
