BHUBANESWAR: Leader of BJP Legislature Party in the outgoing Assembly K V Singh Deo lost to BJD’s Saroj Kumar Meher by a margin of 10,528 votes.
Singh Deo, who had won from Patnagarh Assembly constituency five times in a row since 1995, secured 75,258 votes as against 85,786 votes by Meher.
Singh Deo was a Cabinet Minister for Industry and Public Enterprise from 2000 to 2004 and Minister for Urban Development and Public Enterprise from 2004 to 2009 in the coalition government led by Naveen Patnaik.
However, KV’s wife Sangeeta Singh Deo, a three-time member of Lok Sabha from 1998 to 2009, has won the Lok Sabha election from Balangir by defeating her brother-in-law and BJD candidate Kalikesh Singh Deo.