BHUBANESWAR: The defeat of BJP in Jharsuguda by-election was on expected lines. But, what has surprised the poll pundits is that the saffron party improved its vote share compared to the 2019 election despite all adversities.
It was advantage for Deepali Das, the BJD candidate, from the beginning as she was chosen to capitalise on the sympathy of voters for her father who was murdered by a police sub-inspector. Apart from her own financial strength there was also a well-oiled election machinery called BJD and a battery of ministers and MLAs to manage her electioneering.
In contrast, BJP candidate Tankadhar Tripathy had nothing to match with his main rival. While his candidature for the bypoll was announced late, lack of resources and time were major constraints to fight an opponent like Deepali who had everything at her disposal.
As the BJP increased its vote share from 30.04 per cent in 2019 elections to 33.25 per cent in the bypoll, the state party leadership was keen to look into the positives. Senior leader Samir Mohanty asserted that the people of Jharsuguda did not defeat the BJP but “an unholy alliance of the BJD-Congress did.”
“The complete shift of Congress votes to BJD this time was a repeat of what happened in Padampur last year. The Congress had given tickets to right candidates in the two bypolls but they could not draw the pocket Congress votes, which is baffling. The results of the two by-elections has convinced us that the BJD has a tacit understanding with the Congress to defeat the BJP,” he said.
Mohanty said, “We never thought that the Congress will surrender meekly before the BJD. We had never won the seat in the past. Even during the BJD-BJP coalition government, the constituency was with the regional party which won the seat twice. Naba Kishore Das, who was then with Congress snatched away the seat from the BJD after it snapped ties with the BJP.”
In 2009, the BJP secured 15,095 votes. The party marginally improved its vote share from 11.87 per cent to 12.74 per cent by getting 21,047 votes in 2014. The party came in contention in the 2019 election by improving its tally to second position by 52,921 votes which was over 30 per cent of the popular vote. Another 3.15 per cent increase in the vote share within such a small time is no mean achievement, he said.