BARGARH: SURESH Pujari, BJP’s candidate for Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency, finally tasted success after facing defeat in five Assembly polls and one Lok Sabha election in the past.
Pujari grabbed the seat after defeating BJD stalwart Prasanna Acharya by a margin of 63,939 votes. While Pujari bagged 5,81,245 votes, Prasanna secured 5,17,306 votes and Congress’ Pradeep Kumar Debata got 1,09,417 votes.
The Bargarh Parliamentary constituency covers Bargarh, Attabira, Bijepur, Bhatli and Padampur Assembly segments in Bargarh district besides Jharsuguda and Brajrajnagar Assembly segments in Jharsuguda district.
Surprisingly, though BJD has won in all the seven Assembly segments, Suresh emerged as winner from the Parliamentary constituency as the binary of ‘BJD for Assembly, BJP for Lok Sabha’ has worked in real sense here.
I
n 2014 polls, Prabhas Kumar Singh of BJD defeated his nearest rival Subash Chouhan of BJP by a margin of 11,178 votes in Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency. Suresh, who is national BJP secretary, contested from the Lok
Sabha constituency for the first time in 2019 General Elections.
Suresh, who was former State BJP president, came to limelight in the State as a firebrand student leader following a student movement in the early 1980s.
He fought the 2014 polls as BJP nominee from the Sambalpur Parliamentary constituency but lost the election to Nagendra Pradhan of BJD.
Earlier, he fought from Brajrajnagar Assembly seat, which comes under Bargarh Parliamentary constituency, thrice in a row as BJP nominee in 2000, 2004 and 2009 but his attempt turned futile as he was defeated by Congress candidate Anup Kumar Sai by narrow margin on all the three occasions. Prior to this, he fought from Sambalpur Assembly seat as Independent candidate in 1985 and 1995 but failed to win.
However, he was elected as the chairman of Sambalpur Municipality in the direct election for the post held in 1992.
Thanking people of Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency for his victory, Suresh said he succeeded to win from the seat despite all odds due to Modi wave. “However, we will review why the party lost election in Assembly seats and take appropriate measures,” he said, adding that development of the constituency will be his prime focus.