Naveen To Kick Off Poll Campaign In Bijepur After His Birthday

Bhubaneswar: A day after celebrating his birthday on October 16, BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is expected to embark on poll campaign in Bijepur for party candidate Rita Sahu.

With five-day Durga Puja festivities over, political parties have now revved up their campaign for the byelection on October 21.

According to party sources, Naveen will leave for Bijepur in a special flight on October 17. He will address a public meeting in Barpalli. In the evening, he will conduct road shows in Barpalli and Bijepur.

After a night halt at the Circuit House in Barpalli, the Chief Minister will start his campaign in Gaisilat block and address public meetings on October 18. He is scheduled to return to Bhubaneswar in the afternoon.

This is the third time that the BJD president will be staying overnight in a constituency during a poll campaign.

In April this year, he spent the night in Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency during the general elections after conducting roadshows in different segments and in Gopalpur while campaigning in his home turf Hinjili Assembly constituency in 2014.

The BJD is going all out to nip any resentment among the electorates, which had voted for Naveen in the Assembly elections in May this year and ensured his win by a huge margin, since he relinquished the seat later and decided to retain Hinjili leading to the bypoll. Prior to that, the BJD president had announced a Rs 1,330 crore package for Bijepur on May 30.

The party then nominated Sahu, who had won the Bijepur bypoll in February 2018 after the death of her husband and sitting Congress MLA Subala Sahu.

The bypoll is expected to be a triangular fight between Sahu, Congress’ Dilip Panda and  BJP’s Sanat Gadtia.