Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) today released a list of star campaigners for the upcoming by-election to the Bijepur Assembly constituency scheduled to be held on February 24. The list includes names of 40 prominent leaders including party chief Naveen Patnaik who is scheduled to campaign in February 19 & 21. According to sources, Naveen will campaign for party candidate Rita Sahu in Gaisilat & Barpali block on Feb 19 and in Bijepur block on February 21.
A total of 27 MLAs and six MPs are among the star campaigners who will campaign for party candidate Rita Sahu ahead of the bypoll.
Names like Ved Prakash Agarwal, Tathagata Satpathy, Pratap Jena and Bikram Keshari Arukh, Surya Narayan Patro, Anang Uday Singh Deo, Kalikesh Singh Deo, Pratap Keshari Deb, cine stars Siddhant Mohapatra, Anubhav Mohanty, Akash Das Nayak, Munna Khan, Arindam Roy and Kuna Tripathy have figured in the list.
Other star campaigners named by the party include Rohit Pujari, Dr. Raseswari Panigrahi, Prashant Jagdev, Rajendra Sahu, Byomakesh Ray, Pranab Kumar Balabantaray, Capt Dibya Shankar Mishra, Pushpendra Singhdeo, Pritiranjan Ghadai, Debasis Nayak, Samir Das, Umakanta Samantray, Braja Pradhan, Sanjeev Sahu and Pramila Mallick.
While voting is scheduled for February 24, counting of votes and the results of the by-election will be declared on February 28.