BARGARH (Odisha): Rita Sahu of BJD won the by-election for Bijepur Assembly constituency by defeating her rival from BJP Sanat Kumar Gartia by a record margin of 97,990 votes.
The counting of votes for the by-poll conducted amidst high security arrangements on Thursday.
While BJD candidate Rita secured 1,35,957 votes, BJP candidate Gartia got 37,967 votes. Congress candidate Dillip Kumar Panda managed to bag only 5,873 votes to be placed at distant third position and lose his deposit.
The by-poll was necessitated after BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated the seat, which he had won along with Hinjili constituency in 2019 elections.
Rita, however, surpassed the vote margin of the Chief Minister, who had defeated Gartia by a margin of 57,122 votes during the simultaneous General and Assembly Elections in April.
While Naveen had secured 1,10,604 votes, Gartia had got 53,482 votes and Ripunath Seth of Congress managed to get 14,344 votes.
With the landslide victory for Rita, BJD managed to capture Bijepur constituency three times in a row within a span of around 20 months.
Earlier, Rita had won by-election from the constituency in February 2018 by defeating BJP rival Ashok Panigrahi by a margin of 41,933 votes. She had then secured 1,02,871 votes and Ashok got 60,938 votes. Pranaya Sahu of Congress was at third position with 10,274 votes.
The by-poll in 2018 was necessitated after the death of her husband Subal Sahu, who was the sitting Congress MLA. Subal had represented Bijepur for three consecutive terms in 2004, 2009 and 2014. However, after his death, his wife Rita joined BJD and won the by-election.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister has congratulated Rita for her landslide victory in the by-election.