Naveen Patnaik & Dharmendra Pradhan slug it out in Bijepur

BIJEPUR (ODISHA): Bijepur, an underdeveloped assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district on Tuesday witnessed high-voltage campaigning by the leaders of the BJP and ruling BJD.

Bijepur is going to bypoll on February 24 following the death of incumbent MLA Subal Sahu on August 22, 2017.

While CM Naveen Patnaik addressed a public rally at Barpali for the BJD candidate Rita Sahu, Union ministers Smriti Irani and Dharmendra Pradhan canvassed for the BJP nominee Ashok Panigrahi by addressing half-a-dozen meetings in Gaisilet, Ba-rpali and Bijepur blocks.

The chief minister, as usual, delivered his speech in the conventional way — reading out from a piece of paper. He noted his government welfare and social security measures for all sections of people. He, however, did not mention the cases of farmer suicide which the BJP has made a major poll issue.

Nearly a dozen of farmers have committed suicide in Bargarh in recent times and the Opposition Congress and BJP have made it the major poll issue.