Naveen Patnaik triumphs over old rival as BJD bags Patkura Assembly seat

The election was also considered to be a personal contest between Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his long time rival, Bijoy Mohapatra.

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday registered a comfortable victory in the Patkura election over the BJP’s Bijoy Mohapatra while the Congress suffered yet another rout in Odisha. The election has attracted considerable attention as Mohapatra is considered an influential figure in coastal Odisha politics. The election was also considered to be a personal contest between Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his long time rival, Mohapatra.

Mohapatra, a powerful minister in former CM Biju Patnaik’s government and one of the founding members of the BJD in the nineties, fell out with Naveen Patnaik. Mohapatra, along with another Biju era heavyweight politician Dilip Ray, subsequently joined the BJP.

Incidentally, Mohapatra had recently rejoined the BJP after resigning from the saffron party in December.

Explained | How Patkura election result trends signal that Odisha may be headed for a bipolar polity

BJD’s Sabitri Agarwalla clinched the seat with 96,017 votes, ahead of the BJP’s 78,097 votes. The Congress received only 2,104 votes. With the victory, the BJD’s tally in the Odisha Assembly stands at 113 of 146 seats.

BJP claimed that BJD’s victory was inhuman because of its strategy to give the ticket to Bed Prakash Agarwalla, despite his ill health. His death had led to the elections being deferred for the seat. BJD then nominated his wife Sabitri, in his place but elections were deferred again due to Cyclone Fani. “This is inhuman and Machiavellian. He (Prakash) was given a (BJD) ticket, despite objections from his wife that he was very ill. BJD had anticipated his demise (and consequent sympathy wave),” said party spokesperson Jatin Mohanty.

The BJD did not respond to the allegations. “I thank my party workers who worked hard for this election. This is a victory of my work for 10 years,” said victorious candidate Sabitri Agarwalla.

Mohapatra called the results “astounding”, but said that in a democracy, the will of the people has to be accepted.

The campaign saw its share of political heavyweights. While the BJP sent Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Bhubaneswar MP Aparajita Sarangi on the campaign trail, Patnaik personally campaigned for the BJD.

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