Assembly by-polls 2019: BJD all set to retain Bijepur seat with record margin

The ruling Biju Janata Dal is poised to retain the Bijepur assembly seat as its candidate Rita Sahu on Thursday was leading by 87,373 votes over her nearest rival Sanat Gadtia of the Bharatiya Janata Party after 16th round of counting in the assembly by-poll.

The seat was vacated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who retained Hinjili the other seat he had won in the assembly elections in May this year.

At the end of 16th round, Sahu had bagged 120984 votes while the BJP’s Gadtia got 33611 votes and Congress’ Dilip Panda 5047 votes.

With 5 more rounds to go, Rita Sahu is set to win by a record margin, bettering Naveen Patnaik’s own record of a win by more than 57,000 votes. Sahu’s victory margin could also be the biggest ever by-poll victory margin since 2000 when the BJD came to power.

This is the second time the BJD and the BJP have locked horns after the April-May assembly and Lok Sabha polls. In July this year, the BJD had defeated BJP in the Patkura assembly by-poll with more than 17,000 votes.

In the July by-poll, Patnaik’s arch-rival, Bijoy Mohapatra of the BJP, was trounced by the widow of former BJD minister Bed Prakash Agrawalla by 17,290 votes from the Patkura assembly constituency.

While both the BJP and Congress campaigned around the chief minister’s ‘betrayal of Bijepur electorate’, the results indicate that the voters of Bijepur were not impressed.

Patnaik addressed more than 50 roadside meetings from his specially-designed election bus in a span of two days while from the BJP, Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan led the campaign with dozens of meetings.

The Congress party was nowhere in the reckoning during the entire campaign.

The October 21 by-poll witnessed 78.96% turnout with 230,000 eligible voters casting their vote.

Election to the Bijepur constituency was necessitated after Patnaik decided to leave the seat in favour of Hinjili, his old constituency. For the first time in his political career, Patnaik had contested from two assembly seats.

In Bijepur, he had defeated his nearest rival and the BJP’s candidate with a margin of more than 57,000 votes while in Hinjili he defeated BJP spokesperson and lawyer Pitambar Acharya with a margin of over 60,000 votes.

This is 11th by-poll win of BJD since it came to power in 2000 under the leadership of Patnaik. Of these victories, 11 have come in assembly by-polls and one in Lok Sabha by-election.

The party lost only once in 2008 when its candidate was defeated by the Congress in the Laxmipur assembly by-poll. In the 2006 assembly by-poll, its alliance partner BJP lost to the Congress in Talasara assembly constituency of Sundaragarh district.