Bhubaneswar: It's show time in Odisha with political parties, mainly the BJP and the BJD, vying with each other to recruit cine stars to boost their electoral prospects.

The BJP's latest catch from Ollywood happens to be veteran actress Aparajita Mohanty, who joined the party here on Monday. He was immediately rushed to Bijepur where the bypoll campaign has reached a fever pitch.

Aparajita, who had unsuccessfully contested the last Lok Sabha election from Cuttack on a Congress ticket, swore by the leadership of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, like her yesteryear co-star, Mahashweta, who had joined the BJP on February 12.

Before Aparajita hits the trail, Mihir Das, Anu Choudhury, Sritam Das and Pinki Pradhan, all familiar names in Odia film and television industry, had stationed themselves in Bijepur to campaign for BJP candidate Ashok Panigrahi.

The bypoll for the Bijepur Assembly seat that had fallen vacant following the death of sitting Congress MLA Subal Sahu is witnessing a high-voltage contest with the BJP and the BJD seeking to dazzle the voters with their star power.

While the likes of Aparajita, Mahesweta, Mihir and Anu have been seeking votes for Panigrahi, who had won the seat in 2000 on a BJD ticket, the ruling party has deployed cine stars-turned-MPs Siddhant Mohapatra and Anubhav Mohanty apart from Akash Das Nayak, another Ollywood import who has made it good in politics and is now the party MLA from Korei.

Arindam Ray, another Odia star and aspiring politician, has also been thrown into the campaign that is expected to culminate with a two-day whirlwind tour of the constituency by chief minister Naveen Patnaik beginning Tuesday.

The Congress, which is fighting hard to retain the seat, seems to be the only party short on star power.

State Congress president Prasad Harichandan, however, sought to downplay the change of sides by Aparajita. "These movie stars are like mercenaries. For us our grassroots level workers are the real stars," said Harichandan.

The trend of movie stars joining politics is not new in Odisha. One of the first to join politics was eminent actor-director Prashant Nanda, who was elected from Begunia Assembly constituency on a BJP ticket in 2000.

Opinion, however, is divided on the utility of movie stars as campaigners and vote catchers. "They are also working like others," said BJP leader Suresh Pujari.

Senior BJD leader Amar Satpathy said film stars helped pull crowds during polls.