BHUBANESWAR: Turncoats had a mixed fortune in 2014 polls in the State. Some tasted success after jumping the fence while others had a bitter experience. And it happened across partylines.
Both Hema Gamang and Anup Sai made a last minute switch from Congress to BJD. Hema lost by 22,473 votes to Kailash Chandra Kulesika of Congress in Laxmipur Assembly segment whereas Anup lost to BJP’s Radharani Panda in Brajarajnagar Assembly seat.
Similarly, Arun Dey, who changed side to Congress after being denied ticket by BJD, was on his way to a bad loss as he was placed third in the race after Jiban Pradip Das of BJD and MM Dutta of BJP. Dey has a history of changing parties.
However, Golak Naik who had switched side from BJP to BJD won from Udala Assembly seat by over 8,000 votes. Similarly, Sudam Marandi’s jump from JMM to BJD paid rich dividends as he won by a handsome margin of over 31,000 votes from Bangiriposhi. Former Minister Duryodhan Majhi also won after he changed sides from BJD to BJP. On the Lok Sabha front, the story was similar. Hemendra Chandra Singh who joined BJD by quitting Congress ahead of the elections made it count by winning the Kandhamal Parliamentary constituency by over one lakh margin.
However, Bibhu Tarai, who represented Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha seat in 2009 as a CPI candidate, could not.
Till reports last came in, he was trailing by a huge margin of 2.7 lakh. He had quit CPI and joined Congress before the polls.