BHUBANESWAR: A day after the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly constituency, the ruling BJD asserted that the contest will be one-sided with the party candidate getting 1.25 lakh to 1.4 lakh votes.
The BJD candidate Rita Sahu is locked in a triangular contest at Bijepur with Sanat Gadatia of the BJP and Congress nominee Dilip Kumar Panda. Counting of votes will be taken up on October 24 and results declared on the same day.
Rural Development Minister Sushant Singh, one of the senior leaders of the BJD who was in overall charge of the constituency in the bypoll, said Rita will win with a convincing margin. If the speculation of the Minister comes true, she will get more votes than what Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had polled in the 2019 election. Naveen had secured 1.1 lakh votes.
Meanwhile, senior Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati on Tuesday made a volte face and said the party candidate will win the bypoll with a slender margin of 2000 to 3000 votes. Despite the resources and fund constraint, the party has done exceptionally well in the byelection, Bahinipati said and added that in many booths, the Congress candidate has got highest number of votes.
On Monday, Bahinipati had said the Congress candidate will not do well in the by-poll. He is the second senior leader who changed statement about the bypoll result within a week. Veteran Congress leader Suresh Kumar Routray had also made similar statements about the bypoll result.
The BJP is also confident of a victory from the seat. Party’s State president Basant Panda told media persons that this time, the BJP will wrest the seat from the BJD.
Contrary to speculation, the bypoll recorded a heavy turnout of 79.17 per cent indicating a massive mobilisation by the BJD. “As there was lack of interest of the voters in the bypoll during campaigning, such a high turnout indicates a massive mobilisation by the BJD,” a senior Congress leader said.