BJP and BSP declare 40 leaders each as star campaigner for Odisha, JMM has 20

BHUBANESWAR: Three parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) submitted their star campaigners' list to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha. The list of BJP and BSP has as many as 40 leaders each while the JMM named 20 leaders as star campaigners.
BJP’s star campaigner’s list included national level leaders like prime minister Narendra Modi, Amit Saha, Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Yogi Adityanath, Raghubar Das, Smriti Irani, Arjun Munda, Hema Malini, Sivraj Singh Chauhan, Prakash Javedkar, Sambit Patra, Raman Singh, Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram.Among the state-level leaders included as start campaigners are recent turncoats Baijayant Panda, Damodar Rout, along with Suresh Pujari, Basant Panda, Giridhar Gomango, K V Singh Deo, Biswabhushan Harichandan, Pratap Sarangi, Surama Padhee, Samir Mohanty, Golak Mohapatra. Besides, celebrities and actors like Aparajita Mohanty, Mihir Das, Mahasweta Ray, Anu Chaudhury, Sritam Das, Ashrumochan Mohanty, Harihar Mohapatra and Pinky Pradhan are also in the list.
BSP’s start campaigner list included party chief Mayawati, Satish Chandra Mishra, Akash Anand, Tankadhar Bag, former congress MLA from Koraput Krushna Chandra Sagaria and others.
The JMM list included party chief Sibu Soren, Hemant Soren, Champai Soren, Stephen Marandi, Kalinga keshari Jena and others.
According to the Election Commission of India (ECI) the expenditure on travel expenses of star campaigners incurred by leaders of political parties on account of travel by air or by any other means will be included in the party expenditure and not under the candidate’s.
During any public rally or meeting by the star campaigners if more than one candidate shared the dais and display banners and posters with their names in the rally then the expenditure will be equally divided by the candidates, said a senior officer in the CEO.