Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: The BJD is making all out efforts to win the Bijepur by-election, which is turning to be a prestige issue for party president Naveen Patnaik.

Election to the seat was necessitated following the death of Congress's sitting MLA Subal Sahu in August. The BJD, which has not achieved success in the Bijepur Assembly constituency since 2004, has roped in Subal's widow Rita and her family to the party fold and fielded her as the candidate. However, her candidature has been opposed by a powerful faction of the local BJD unit in Bijepur, including the senior local leader, Pravat Aditya Mishra.

Though Mishra had already announced that he would work hard to ensure the party's victory from Bijepur which is widely being perceived as the semi-final before the 2019 general elections, Naveen is trying to ensure that all the differences among the local leaders are buried before the party goes on a full swing for the campaign.

As a part of the exercise, Naveen today met all MLAs of Bargarh district, the Assembly constituency's block observer, district president, district observers and even party vice-president and Rajya Sabha member Prasanna Acharya, who was defeated by around 500 votes from Sahu in 2014 general elections. Acharya had earlier expressed his reservation on Rita's candidature. However, following Naveen's intervention, Acharya had pledged his support for her. Today, Acharya, along with other senior leaders, including industries minister Niranjan Pujari, local MLAs and former ministers Sanjay Dasburma and Pranab Prakash Das, was present at the preparatory meeting.

Bargarh BJD district unit president Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha said: 'The party always backs the party president's decision. All the issues have been resolved, and there is no rift at this moment. Earlier, there had been some discontentment among the party workers, but now, it got resolved. As Sahu's family were earlier in the Congress, some BJD leaders had some reservations against them joining our party.'

While the BJD has announced its candidate for the bypoll, the BJP is yet to formally announce its candidate though it has been widely perceived that Ashok Panigrahi, who joined the party earlier this week, will be its candidate. On the other hand, the faction-ridden Congress is yet to find a candidate for the bypoll. Sources said the party has entrusted the job to Jharsuguda MLA Naba Kishore Das to finalise a name and send it to the Pradesh Congress Committee for approval.

In yet another setback, Congress leaders - Barpali notified area council chairperson Meena Seth and vice-chairman Pradyumna Tripathy - will join the BJD tomorrow in presence of Naveen.

Property raid

Vigilance sleuths raided houses of head clerk of Sundergarh Government Women's College Ramesh Patel on charges of acquisition and possession of property disproportionate to his known source of income. Under the direction of the Sundergarh special vigilance judge, three teams of the anti-corruption wing led by Balangir vigilance superintendent of police Parameswar Kisan searched Patel's residence at Nuapada, his ancestral house at Kudabega under Sadar block and his in-laws' house at Jharakani.