BJP set to form govt in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The BJP won 24 Assembly seats in Odisha on Tuesday and was leading in 56 other constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India. The Biju Janata Dal won 18 seats and was leading in 31 constituencies out of the 147 Assembly seats, it said.

Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik was trailing BJP’s Laxman Bag by 10,460 votes in the Kantabanji Assembly seat in Bolangir district. The BJD supremo was leading by 4,355 votes over his BJP rival Sisir Kumar Mishra in the Hinjili seat, the other seat he is contesting in Ganjam district.

The Congress won two seats and was ahead in 12 Assembly segments. BJP candidate Prithviraj Hairchandran won the Chilika Assembly constituency defeating his nearest BJD rival Raghunath Sahu by 4,566 votes while saffron party candidate Ashwini Kumar Sarangi won the Bargarh Assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival Debesh Acharya of BJD by 4,772 votes.

BJP’s Durga Prasad Tanti won the Raghunathpalli assembly segment by a margin of 5,774 votes defeating his nearest rival Archanarekha Behera of BJD. The saffron party’s Tankadhar Tripathy won the Jharsuguda assembly segment by defeating his nearest rival Depali Das of BJD by 1,333 votes.

BJP candidate Irasis Acharya won from Bhatli constituency defeating BJD candidate and former minister Susanta Singh by 27,892 votes. BJP chief whip in Odisha Assembly Mohan Charan Majhi won the Assembly poll from the Keonjhar seat defeating his nearest rival Mina Majhi of BJD by 11,577 votes.

The other BJP nominees who won are - Bhabani Shankar Bhoi (Talsara), Padma Charan Haiburu (Karanjia), Kanhai Charan Danga (Kantamal), Dusmanta Kumar Swain (Khandapada), Fakir Mohan Naik (Telkoi), Sanat Gartia (Bijepur), Prasanta Kumar Jagadev (Khurda), Raghunath Jagadala (Birmaharajpur), Narasinga Madkami (Malkangiri), Ganesh Ramsing Khuntia (Jashipur),Sanjali Murmu (Bangriposi), Sudhir Ranjan Pattjoshi (Dharamgarh) and Saroj Kumar Pradhan (Boudh).

Senior BJD leader and Odisha Assembly speaker Pramila Mallik won from Binjharpur constituency. Mallik won the seat by defeating her nearest BJP rival Babita Mallick by 2,856 votes.