BJP races to majority mark in Odisha assembly with leads on 76 seats
The BJP was also ahead with 17 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats as compared to the BJD’s 3. The Congress was ahead on one seat.
Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) raced ahead of the Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and crossed the halfway point in the Odisha assembly by 11:30 am, leading on 76 of the state’s 147 assembly seats. The BJD was ahead on 53 seats.
The BJP was also ahead with 17 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats as compared to the BJD’s 3. The Congress was ahead on one seat.
Chief minister Naveen Patnaik was leading in Hijili, but trailing behind BJP’s Laxman Bag in Kantabanji assembly constituency.
Of the trends available in 144 of the 147 assembly seats, BJP candidates were ahead on 76 seats as the party inched towards the majority mark of 74. BJD was trailing at 53 seats with Congress in third position with 12 seats.
According to the leads, the BJP is doing extremely well in northern, southern and western Odisha where it fought on its poll plank of Odia Asmita (Odia pride) as it targeted Naveen Patnaik’s deputy VK Pandian, a Tamil Nadu-born former IAS officer who it claimed would succeed the five-time chief minister.
To be sure, Patnaik did try to carry out a course correction when he ruled out Pandian as his successor towards the end of the campaign but the damage had been done.
The BJD also aimed at denting the BJD’s support base among women who have backed Patnaik’s party in the past. The BJP had also promised women in the age group of 23 and 59 years a cash voucher of ₹50,000 through the Subhadra Yojana.
In the Lok Sabha elections, BJP was leading in Sambalpur, Balasore, Aska, Bargarh, Bhubaneswar, Bolangir, Sundargarh, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Puri, Berhampur, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Nabarngpur, Cuttack and Kendrapara and Keonjhar while BJD led in Jajpur and Aska Lok Sabha seats. The Congress led in Koraput Lok Sabha constituency.