Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD was reduced to zero seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections with BJP winning 20 of the 21 parliamentary constituencies and Congress retaining its one seat won in 2019.
Union Minister and BJP candidate Dharmendra Pradhan, who was fighting a direct election after a gap of 15 years, won from Sambalpur by defeating his nearest BJD rival Pranab Prakash Das by 1,19, 836 votes, according to the Election Commission of India.
Dharmendra secured 5,92,162 votes while Pranab got 4,72,326 votes.
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra defeated BJD’s Arup Mohan Patnaik, by 1,04,709 votes in his second electoral bid from Puri constituency. He had almost pulled off a stunning upset over four-time MP and lawyer Pinaki Misra in Puri in 2019 elections taking the fight to the last rounds of counting and lost by a slender margin of 11,714 votes.
Former union minister Jual Oram scored a hat-trick in Sundargarh by defeating his nearest BJD rival Dilip Tirkey by 1,38,808 votes.
National vice-president of BJP Baijayant Panda won the prestigious Kendrapada Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJD’s Anshuman Mohanty by 66,536 votes. He had won the seat in 2009 and 2014 on BJD ticket but lost in 2019 elections after joining BJP following a fallout with Naveen Patnaik.
Bhartruhari Mahtab registered his seventh consecutive victory from Cuttack albeit on BJP ticket by defeating corporate veteran Santrupt Misra of BJD by 57,077 votes.
Aparajita Sarangi retained her Bhubaneswar seat by defeating her nearest rival Manmath Routray of BJD by a comfortable margin of over 35,000 votes.
First-timer Malavika Keshari Deo, who belongs to Kalahandi royal family, won the parliamentary seat on BJP ticket by defeating her nearest BJD rival, Lambodar Nial, by a margin of 1,30,278 votes. Her husband Arkakesari Deo was elected to the parliament in 2014 on a BJD ticket.
THE OTHER BJP WINNERS
- Bargarh – Pradeep Purohit
- Balangir -Sangeet Singh Deo
- Nabarangpur – Balabhadra Majhi
- Kandhamal – Sukanta Panigrahi
- Jagatsinghpur- Bibhu Prasad Tarai
- Aska -Anita Subhadarshini
- Berhampur – Pradeep Panigrahi
- Dhenkanal – Rudra Narayan Pany
- Keonjhar – Ananta Nayak
- Mayurbhanj – Naba Charan Majhi
- Balasore – Pratap Sarangi
- Bhadrak – Avimanyu Sethi
- Jajpur – Rabindra Behera
Congress’ Saptagiri Ulaka retained his Koraput seat by defeating Kausalya Hikaka of BJD by 1,47,744 votes.
