ROURKELA: BJP with sterling performance secured three of the total seven Assembly seats under the Sundargarh Lok Sabha Constituency, while BJD bagged two Assembly segments and the Congress and CPM shared one each.
For the first the BJP won the Talsara Assembly seat with its nominee Bhawani Shankar Bohi taking victory lead of 15,918 over newbie BJD nominee Stepehn Wilson Soreng. Three-time sitting Congress MLA Prafulla Majhi was reduced to third spot.
After 2006, the BJP clinched the Sundargarh Assembly segment. BJP nominee Kusum Tete, who quit the BJD on denied party ticket, secured 73,673 votes. She took winning lead of 7,550 votes over BJD’s Jogesh Singh who bagged 66,123 votes. The two-time former MLA of Congress Jogesh had joined
BJD just before the election. Amita Biswal, daughter of former Congress Chief Minister Hemanand Biswal, and Congress nominee with 10,117 votes lost her deposit.
In Birmitrapur, former BJP MLA Shankar Oram won the poll race with a comfortable lead of 14,337 votes over Congress nominee Rohit Joseph Tirkey. BJD nominee Maklu Ekka finished third securing 37,914 votes.
In Rajgangpur, Congress nominee CS Rajen Ekka with 51,335 votes won with a lean margin of 1,396 votes defeated sitting MLA of BJD and veteran BJD leader Mangla Kisan who got 49,959 votes. Interestingly, in Rajgangpur Assembly seat BJP nominee Narsingh Minz was slightly behind with 49,404 votes.
The cheer came for BJD from Rourkela seat as the party nominee and Rourkela Development Authority Sarada Prasad Nayak with 60,059 votes defeated BJP nominee Nihar Ray with 10,349 votes. Nihar secured 49,710 votes, while Congress nominee Biren Senapati was at third spot with just 13,821 votes.
BJD’s sitting MLA from RN Pali and former Minister Subrata Tarai narrowly won with a lead of 4,292 votes over BJP candidate Jagabandhu Behera. Subrata secured 42,803 votes and Jagabandhu bagged 38,511 votes. BJD rebel Pashant Sethi, who contested on Congress ticket, bagged 19,320 votes.
Sitting MLA of CPM Laxman Munda managed to retain the Bonai Assembly seat bagging 57,057 votes defeating his nearest rival of BJD Ranjit Kishan who got 45,442 votes. Despite loss, Anil Barla of BJP managed to lift BJP’s vote share to 35,576 votes.