Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Ashok Panigrahi, who joined the party in October last, filed his nomination papers on Friday for the Bijepur Assembly by-poll, scheduled to be held on February 24 next.

Mr Panigrahi, who had won the Bijepur Assembly seat on a BJD ticket in 2000 Assembly elections, went in a procession with thousands of party supporters to file the nomination paper at the Padampur sub-collector office.

Prior to filing his nomination paper, the BJP held a public meeting at Padampur attended by BJP’s state-in-charge Arun Singh, state unit president Basant Panda, BJP legislature party leader KV Singh Deo and Padampur MLA Pradip Purohit besides other local leaders.

By election for the Bijepur was necessitated following the demise of sitting Congress MLA Subal Sahu whose widow has joined the ruling Biju Janata Dal and will be filing her nomination paper on February 5 next, BJD sources said.


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