JAGATSINGHPUR: The defeat of sitting Congress MLA Chiranjib Biswal from Jagatsinghpur Assembly seat has left the leaders groping in the dark for reasons. Once a Congress forte, the party has lost face with its candidates in all four Assembly seats and Parliamentary constituency defeated by huge margins. Biswal was defeated by BJD candidate Prasant Muduli by 8,712 votes. BJP MLA candidate Satyabrat Mohapatra suffered a setback and had to be satisfied with the third position.
More than the loss of Biswal, the win of Muduli has surprised poll pundits. Muduli was sitting MLA of Balikuda-Erasama seat but ticket was given to BJP leader Raghunandan Das, who joined BJD late and even grabbed the party ticket for he seat.
The decision of BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik to give ticket for Jagatsinghpur seat to Muduli instead of Balikuda-Erasama seat had led to discontent among the supporters of Amarendra Das, who was an aspirant to get BJD ticket from Jagatsinghpur Assembly seat. Despite protest from BJD, Muduli contested and won. It is now evident that Muduli’s win was due to Naveen’s popularity.
In Balikuda-Erasama, Congress candidate Lalatendu Mohapatra was defeated by his BJD rival Raghunandan Das by a margin of 54,403 votes. BJP leader Damodar Rout secured only 37,298 votes from the seat. In Paradip, Congress candidate Arindam Sarkhel has been defeated by BJD’s Sambit Routray by 20,981 votes.