SAMBALPUR: In a major jolt to the ruling BJD, the party failed to retain the prestigious Sambalpur Assembly seat. Sitting BJD MLA Raseswari Panigarhi lost the seat to veteran BJP leader and former minister Jayanarayan Mishra by a margin of 4,296 votes.
Jayanarayan polled 56,862 votes while Raseswari got 52,566 votes. Aswini Kumar Pujahari of Congress managed just 11,547 votes.
Jayanarayan bagged the seat for the fourth time. He was elected in 2000, 2004 and 2009 but in 2014, he was defeated by Raseswari by a margin of 9,958 votes. A ‘parachute candidate’ in 2014 polls, Raseswari got 48,362 votes in 2014 elections while Jayanarayan polled 38,404 votes followed by Sureshwar Mishra of Congress with 19,020 votes.
In the four Assembly segments of Sambalpur, Rengali, Kuchinda and Rairakhol, it was a mixed result.
In Rengali Assembly segment, BJP candidate Nauri Nayak defeated his nearest rival Reena Tanty of BJD by a margin of 6,627 votes. Balakrushna Rohidas of Congress was placed at third with 9,776 votes. In 2014 polls, Nauri of BJP was defeated by Ramesh Patua of the BJD by a slender margin of 1,830 votes.
In Kuchinda segment, Kishore Chandra Naik of BJD defeated tribal leader Rabi Narayan Naik of BJP by a margin of 3,900 votes.
While Kishore got 72,440 votes, Rabinarayan managed to get 68,540 votes. Sovaram Padhan of Congress got 24,696 votes. In 2014, Rabinarayan of BJP defeated BJD’s Bhubaneswar Kisan by a huge margin of 22,064 votes.
Rohit Pujari of BJD was leading over his nearest rival Debendra Mohapatra of BJP in Rairakhol Assembly seat. In 2014, Rohit won from the seat by defeating Asaf of Congress by a margin of 11,909 votes.