BJD wins Padampur bypoll with a record margin in Odisha, dashes BJP hopes

BJP candidate Pradip Purohit said his party had hoped to win the bypoll by a margin of 5,000 votes. He lost to the BJD, which secured 58% of the votes polled and a victory margin of 42,000 votes

Updated on: Dec 8, 2022, 23:50:18 IST

By Debabrata Mohanty

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Bhubaneswar: Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal on Thursday registered its sixth bypoll win since 2019 assembly polls after its candidate Barsha Singh Bariha defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Pradip Purohit by over 42,000 votes in the Padampur assembly bypoll.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supporters celebrate after party candidate Barsha Singh Bariha wins Padampur seat of Odisha assembly in Bhubaneswar on Thursday. (ANI)

Barsha Singh Bariha, 29, daughter of late MLA Bijay Singh Bariha, whose death in October this year necessitated the bypoll, won by a margin of 42,679 votes, far more than the winning margin of her father in the 2019 assembly polls. Bariha, a Binjhal tribal, won a record 58% votes while Purohit secured 37.5% votes. The Congress, which ended up with over 30,000 votes in the 2019 assembly polls, received just about 3,500 votes.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, who travelled to the constituency in the run-up to the election to address two meetings, said he went to the assembly segment to back the candidate because BJP leaders kept on attacking a woman who had lost her father. “Winning or losing in an election is a different issue. But dishonouring women like this is highly condemnable,” said Patnaik.

BJP candidate Pradip Purohit was hugely disappointed. “We had hoped to win the bypoll by a margin of 5,000 votes. We will certainly review booth-wise data and other issues,” said Purohit.

Though BJP held on to its vote share secured in the 2019 election, the collapse of Congress and the transfer of its votes to BJD sealed its fate.

The Padampur bypoll battle, perhaps the last before the 2024 assembly polls, was crucial for the ruling BJD after the opposition retained the Dhamnagar assembly seat in last month’s bypoll. The BJD had been on the defensive after its candidate lost to BJP’s Suryabanshi Suraj, the 27-year-old son of Dhamnagar MLA Bishnu Sethi by nearly 10000 votes.

To ensure the victory of his party candidate, Naveen Patnaik deployed dozens of ministers and MLAs in the constituency, getting them go for door-to-door campaigning. He also promised to make Padampur, a sub-division, a full-fledged district in 2023, and announced cash incentives for Kendu leaf pluckers, who form a sizeable number in the constituency.

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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