BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik is on his way to form government in Odisha for a fifth consecutive time, trends of counting for the Assembly polls suggest. While BJD is leading in 114 Assembly seats, the BJP which is ahead in 21 seats is far behind.
The main opposition Congress has, however, slumped to the third position behind the BJP in the state. The BJD sweep in the Assembly polls when there was a nationwide Modi wave has again proved that the voters of Odisha have put their stamp of approval for a Naveen Patnaik government in an overwhelming manner.
In the Lok Sabha polls, the regional outfit is ahead of its main rival BJP by leading in at least 13 constituencies, according to the latest trends. The BJP is leading in 8 Lok Sabha seats, though the trends in some of the constituencies are fluctuating.
Patnaik, who is contesting from two seats has managed to comfortable defeat BJP's Sanat Kumar Gadtia by a margin of 56,533 votes in Bijepur seat. He is also on his way to winning Hinjili seat against his rival Pitambar Acharya of BJP by a huge margin of over 40,000 votes.
State Congress president Niranjan Patnaik was defeated in both the seats of Ghasipura and Bhandaripokhari. However, leader of the opposition in the outgoing Assembly Narasingh Mishra is ahead of his BJD rival in Balangir assembly seat.
According to reports, Congress is ahead in 9 assembly seats in Odisha. The Barabati-Cuttack assembly seat has gone to Mohammed Moquim of Congress from where he defeated his nearest BJD rival Debasis Samantray by over 4000 votes.
Several ministers in the Patnaik ministry who contested the Assembly elections have won or are leading in their constituencies. Prominent among those who are leading include Finance Minister Sashibhusan Behera who is leading against his Congress rival Ganeswar Behera by a margin of 4769 votes.
Prominent ministers who have won the assembly polls include Bikram Keshari Arukha from the Bhanjanagar seat who defeated nearest BJP rival Pradyumna Nayak by 9,424 votes. Minister of state for energy also retained the Sushant Singh retained the Bhatli Assembly seat by defeating BJP’s Irashish Acharya by 23,332 votes.
While minister of state for tourism and culture Ashok Panda was leading against his BJP rival Babu Singh, speaker of the Assembly Pradip Amat was leading from the Boudh assembly constituency against his BJP rival Sushant Kumar Pradhan by 10,448 votes. Former Mayor of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and BJD candidate from the Bhubaneswar-central assembly seat is also ahead of his BJP rival Jagannath Pradhan by over 10,000 votes. Minister of state for sports and youth affairs Chandra Sarathi Behera was also leading over his nearest from the Cuttack Sadar seat.
Prominent losers in the BJD include revenue and disaster management minister Maheswar Mohanty who was defeated by his nearest BJP rival by a slender margin. Opposition chief whip in the outgoing assembly Tara Prasad Bahinipati who was trailing behind BJD candidate Rabi Narayan Nanda in earlier rounds from the Jeypore Assembly constituency has now established a lead.
Though the split vote theory seemed to have worked in some of the Lok Sabha constituencies, coastal Odisha has remained an impregnable fort of the ruling BJD. BJD candidates are leading with comfortable margins in all the coastal Lok Sabha seats like Cuttack, Puri, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur and Kendrapara.
Prominent among those trailing in the Lok Sabha polls include the BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda from the Kendrapara which had consumed a lot of media space during the last one month. Another prominent BJP candidate, Prakash Mishra is also trailing behind in the Cuttack Lok Sabha constituency. Mishra was pitted against BJD veteran Bhartruhari Mahatab in Cuttack. The Puri Lok Sabha seat is, however, witnessing a tough fight with trends fluctuating between sitting BJD MP Pinaki Mishra and BJP’s Sambit Patra.
However, Mishra has now established a slender lead according to the latest trends. However, BJP state president Basant Panda is leading from Kalahandi Lok Sabha constituency. Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram is also leading from the Sundargarh Lok Sabha constituency by a margin of nearly two lakh votes against his Congress rival George Torkey. While Aparajita Sarangi of BJP is leading from the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency, former union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu is leading from the Berhampur parliamentary constituency.
The result in some constituencies including Balangir, Balasore and Sambalpur may remain uncertain till the last round as leading trends are fluctuating between the BJD and BJP candidates. However, Sangeeta Singhdeo of BJP was leading in Balangir till the reports last came. Similarly, national BJP secretary Suresh Pujari has also established a lead against Prasanna Acharya of BJD in Bargarh
Lok Sabha seat.
Rajya Sabha member Achyuta Samanta contesting as a BJD candidate from Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat is leading against Kharavela Swain of BJP. Similarly, BJD candidates are leading in both Koraput and Nabarangpur Lok Sabha seats.