Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik, the sitting MLA of Odisha’s Berhampur Assembly constituency, may have missed out on the party ticket but has emerged as the star campaigner for both parliamentary and Assembly poll candidates of the Biju Janata Dal in the area.

All BJD posters, banners and billboards in Berhampur city bear photos of the five-time MLA prominently, along with those of party founder Biju Patnaik and his son and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. Chandrasekhar Sahu, the party’s Lok Sabha candidate here, and Assembly election contestant Bikram Panda make it a point to take the doctor along during their campaigns.

Both candidates were political rivals of Dr. Chyau Patnaik until last year, when they left the Congress to join the BJD. Mr. Panda has tasted defeat at the hands of Dr. Chyau Patnaik four times as a Congress candidate for Berhampur Assembly seat since 2000. At rallies now, he says he might have got the BJD ticket this time but the incumbent MLA is helming his campaign.

The denial of ticket to the doctor had led to rumblings in the Berhampur BJD and among voters.