By Anurjay Dhal
BHUBANESWAR: The magic of Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik continued to prevail in the State with the ruling party winning by polls to the Bijepur Assembly seats under Bargarh Parliamentary segment held by BJP’s Suresh Puujari by a thumping margin on Thursday. The winning margin is over more than 96,000 votes.
Sahu’s winning margin is highest in Odisha’s political history after party’s sitting Khandapada MLA Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, who won by more than 81,000 votes in the last polls.
BJD’s Rita Sahu defeated BJP’s Sanat Gadtia while Congress’s Dilip Panda placed in third position with losing more than 7000 votes in compared to Grand Old Party’s performance in last Assembly polls in the same seat.
While congratulating Sahu for her outstanding victory, Patnaik thanked people of western Odisha, particularly voters of Bijepur Assembly segment. “I thanked the people for extending their support and blessings on us,” a seemingly delighted Naveen said.
Sahu had earlier won a by polls following death of his husband Subal Sahu, who had represented the seat several times as Congress nominee. After death of Subal Sahu, with this win, Rita Sahu won the seat for the second time in by polls. Rita Sahu perhaps the first woman candidate will be elected to Odisha Assembly twice through by polls.
Voting was conducted on October 21 after Chief Minister Patnaik, who had two seats in last polls, had retained his traditional Hinjili seat in southern districts of Ganjam while left the Bijepur in western Odisha districts of Bargarh paving way for by polls.
Falling vote margin of BJP also raised many questions as the Saffron Party is presently the Bargarh Lok Sabha seat under which Bijepur comes.
However, the winning margin clearly shows that Naveen Patnaik is an undisputable leader in Odisha and his party BJD continued to getting support from the people of the State in all successive elections rights from the party formed way back in 1997 following the sad demise of legendary statesman Biju Patnaik.
