BJP retains Dhamnagar seat in Odisha; BJD’s first bypoll defeat since 2009

BJP candidate Suryabanshi Suraj defeated the BJD’s Abanti Das by an emphatic margin of 9,881 votes in Odisha’s Dhamnagar assembly bypoll

Updated on: Nov 6, 2022, 20:44:27 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday won the bypoll to Dhamnagar assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bhadrak district after the party’s candidate Suryabanshi Suraj defeated the Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD) Abanti Das by an emphatic margin of 9,881 votes.

The Dhamnagar assembly bypoll was necessitated due to the death of MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi in September this year. (PTI)

Suraj, son of late MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, whose death in September this year had necessitated the bypoll, polled 80,351 votes while the BJD’s Abanti Das secured 70,470 votes. The Congress, which has been on a perpetual decline could win just about 2.1 % votes.

Suraj, 27, will be the youngest MLA of the current Assembly.

This is the first bypoll defeat of the BJD since 2009 when the party severed its ties with the BJP ahead of the assembly elections. Since 2019 assembly bypolls, the party has won in 5 assembly bypolls, including one which they wrested from BJP.

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Union education minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan, who spearheaded the campaign in Dhamnagar, said the bypoll victory was a victory of democracy. “It is a victory of the youth and women. The result reflects the mood of people in Odisha as well as Odisha’s trust in the decisive and credible leadership of PM Modi,” said Pradhan while expressing his gratitude to the people of Dhamnagar.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik said he respected the verdict. “We have lost very few by-elections. MLA Bisnu C Sethi died recently & he was quite popular. BJP held the seat for a number of years. His son was given the ticket. It was expected that they would win,” Patnaik tweeted.

Despite resistance in the party, Patnaik had given the ticket to a less fancied Abanti Das, chairperson of a panchayat samiti and a former member of the women self help group (SHG). The nomination led to immediate revolt with former party MLA Rajendra Das deciding to contest, which proved costly for the BJD as Das polled 8,153 votes denting the party’s own votes while the victory margin of the BJP candidate was 9,881 votes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debabrata Mohanty
Debabrata Mohanty is a senior assistant editor of Hindustan Times who works as state correspondent from Odisha covering the state's politics, governance, public policy, natural disasters, environment and its society for close to three decades. With his long years of reporting from the state capital of Bhubaneswar, Mohanty has been known as one of the most experienced and credible journalists covering Odisha for the national English dailies. His reporting combines on-ground detail with deep institutional knowledge detailing the state's changing politics, governance issues, administrative reforms and the functioning of its public institutions. He has regularly reported on issues ranging from legislative developments and public policy implementation. Politics is his core areas of expertise as he closely tracks Odisha's political landscape, including the rise and transformation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the two principal political parties in Odisha. His long association with the state's political establishment enables him to write on contemporary developments in a larger political context. Mohanty takes a deep interest in writing human interest stories, environmental issues and documenting the impact of cyclones, floods, heatwaves, and other climate-related events in one of the most disaster-prone states. His coverage extends to public health, governance reforms and stories on accountability of government institutions. Before joining Hindustan Times, Mohanty worked with The Indian Express, Mail Today, and The Telegraph, where he covered at least six general elections and as many assembly elections. In 2007, he was selected for the prestigious Chevening Young Indian Print Journalist Programme at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom, where he received advanced training in print journalism. In 2009 he won the Press Institute of India-International Committee of Red Cross award on conflict reporting for his on-ground reportage of 2008 Kandhamal riots.Read More

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