BALASORE: The saffron party is on its way to regain its earlier stronghold of Balasore.
BJP Lok Sabha candidate Pratap Chandra Sarangi will be winning the Parliamentary seat for the first time in 2019 after tasting defeat in 2014.
Sarangi was ahead by 36,671 votes of BJD candidate Rabindra Kumar Jena who had comfortably won from the seat last time.
Navajyoti Patnaik, son of Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik, was placed a distant third.
In Jaleswar Assembly segment, BJD was ahead of BJP by polling 53,575 votes. The saffron party had secured 29,303 votes after 22 rounds of counting.
In Bhograi, 29,247 votes went in favour of BJD while the BJP candidate bagged 10,043 after 15 rounds of counting.
In Basta segment, BJD bagged 26,238 votes while 18,266 votes went in favour of BJP candidate.