Bijepur assembly bypoll: Its victory margin highest ever in Odisha’s electoral history, says BJD

BJD racked up an overall tally of 1,35,957 votes. Congress received only 5,876 votes, while BJP garnered 37,967 votes.

The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated the first ever seat he had contested and won in western Odisha, in the general elections to the state assembly earlier this year.

BJD leaders are upbeat about the scale of the victory in Bijepur. In the bypoll campaign BJP had hammered Patnaik for “running away” from the people of Bijepur and retaining his previous constituency, Hinjili.

The saffron party’s star campaigners in the state, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Pratap Sarangi, had campaigned in Bijepur.

The victory margin of the BJD is also gaining attention because Rita Sahu surpassed Patnaik’s victory margin from May. She won by a margin of 97,990, while the CM had won by a margin of 57,122 votes in May.

“CM has himself taken the responsibility of Bijepur. I will be his representative”, said Sahu to journalists, adding she will focus on drinking water issues in the constituency. Naveen Patnaik had campaigned for the bypoll, along with top ministers and leaders.

Bijepur gave BJD its second major victory in the state, after the party won a fifth continuous term in power in 2019. The last big electoral win for BJD, post general elections, was in July in the Patkura Vidhan Sabha election in coastal Odisha- where BJD defeated high profile BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra.

Congress received only 5,876 votes, in the seat it had won thrice in 2004, 2009 and 2014. BJD’s Rita Sahu is the widow of the incumbent Congress MLA Subal Sahu, who succumbed to long term ailments in 2017.

Just before the bypoll, the party had seen yet another factional spat between its leaders over the selection of its candidate, Dilip Panda.