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Journalism of Courage
POWERED BY an aggressive campaign over an emotional narrative of Odia Asmita (pride), the BJP Tuesday stopped its former ally BJD from taking reins of Odisha for a record sixth straight term.
In the Assembly elections, which were held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections in the state, the BJP registered a thumping victory, setting the platform to form its first full-majority government in the state.
Out of the total 147 Assembly seats, the BJP won 78, pushing the BJD, which has been in power since 2000, to finish with 51 seats – its worst-ever performance.
The saffron surge also swept the Lok Sabha polls with the BJP bagging 20 of the 21 seats, and leaving the Congress with one seat. The BJD drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls for the first time since its formation.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X: “Thank you Odisha! It’s a resounding victory for good governance and celebrating Odisha’s unique culture. BJP will leave no stone unturned in fulfilling the dreams of people and taking Odisha to new heights of progress.”
“I am very proud of all our hard working Party Karyakartas for their efforts,” he said.
The vote share of the BJD and BJP in the Assembly poll was 40.18% and 39.96%, respectively, according to preliminary estimates. In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP secured 45.51% vote share against the BJD’s 37.50%. Final figures were still awaited.
In 2019, the BJD’s vote share was 45.2% (with 112 seats) against BJP’s 32.8% (23 seats). In the Lok Sabha, it was 43.3% (12 seats) for the BJD and 38.9% (eight seats) for the BJP.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik tasted electoral defeat for the first time, losing in Kantabanji to BJP’s Laxman Bag by 16,344 votes. Patnaik, who chose Kantabanji as his second seat, won from his traditional seat Hinjili by 4,636 votes, his lowest-ever victory margin from the seat.
The idea to field Patnaik from a western Odisha seat was to check the BJP’s growth in the region, a strategy which worked in the BJD’s favour in 2019.
Taking to X, Patnaik greeted all the winning candidates irrespective of party affiliations. He also “honoured the hard work of BJD leaders and workers”.
The BJD’s defeat also prevented Patnaik from becoming the longest serving Chief Minister. Patnaik, who is expected to resign Wednesday, fell short by 74 days against former Sikkim Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling’s record of 24 years and 165 days.
Even before the final results were announced, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan flanked by senior party leaders, including Baijayant Panda and Bhupender Yadav, addressed party workers at the BJP office in Bhubaneswar.
“It’s a day of pride for our state, Odias and the country. I express my gratitude to the 4.5 crore people of Odisha for reposing their faith on the words of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. I express my gratitude to the Prime Minister,” he said.
Boasting about Odia pride – the BJP’s campaign theme that targeted the Chief Minister’s aide V K Pandian, a former bureaucrat with Tamil Nadu roots – Pradhan played a song of celebrated poet Godabarish Mohapatra on his mobile that appealed to the people to wake up and bask in the past glory of the state.
Pradhan, who returned to direct electoral fight after 15 years, won the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat by defeating senior BJD leader Pranab Prakash Das by a margin of 1.17 lakh.
The strong wave in favour of the BJP, which was once dubbed as a “signboard” party in the 1990s and was later reduced to single digit after breaking ties with the BJD in 2009, breached the coastal and interior pockets known to be BJD strongholds.
The BJD was wiped out in Ganjam, the Chief Minister’s home district and party stronghold, as it lost 11 of the 13 seats in the district. In 2019, the BJD had bagged 12 seats from Ganjam.
In the high-profile Aska Lok Sabha seat, where Patnaik started his political journey by contesting as a Janata Dal nominee in 1997 following the death of his father, former chief minister Biju Patnaik, the BJD faced its maiden defeat. The BJP’s Anita Subhadarshini won the seat by around 1 lakh votes. In Berhampur, another Lok Sabha seat in Ganjam, Patnaik’s former close aide Pradeep Panigrahy, who was sacked from the party in November 2020, won for the BJP by a margin of over 1.6 lakh votes.
BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra, who addressed a joint press conference along with Manas Mangaraj and Sulata Deo after the party’s defeat, said the regional party was indebted to the people of Odisha for allowing it to serve the state for uninterrupted 24 years. Patra said the party would continue to serve the people of Odisha.
As many as 11 ministers of Patnaik’s cabinet and several BJD heavyweights faced humiliating defeats in both the Assembly as well as Lok Sabha polls.
Prominent BJP faces who won the Lok Sabha polls included Baijayant Panda (Kendrapada), Sambit Patra (Puri), Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), former Union minister Pratap Sarangi (Balasore), BJP’s tribal face Jual Oram (Sundargarh) and BJD turncoat Bhartruhari Mahtab (Cuttack).
However, BJP state president Manmohan Samal lost in Chandabali Assembly seat by a margin of 1,916 votes to BJD’s Byomokesh Ray.
Despite facing issues like fund constraints and lack of focus on Odisha by its central leaders, the Congress retained the Koraput Lok Sabha seat. In the Assembly election, the party slightly improved its performance, winning 14 seats as compared to just nine in 2019.
Independent candidates, who entered the fray as BJP rebels, won the polls in Dharmasala, Baramba and Mahanga Assembly seats. The three are likely to join BJP soon. Similarly, CPI (M)’s Laxman Munda managed to retain his Bonai seat, a mineral-rich region.
