Bhubaneswar: It was the mother of all upsets in Odisha Assembly elections 2024. BJP’s Laxman Bag is on the verge of creating history by defeating chief minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik in Kantabanji constituency.
According to latest information from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Bag was leading with more than 16,000 votes from Naveen after 29 rounds of counting. Bag polled over 90,500 votes to push Naveen to second spot while the sitting MLA of Congress Santosh Singh Saluja had to be satisfied with third place.
In the contest that was considered one-sided and heavily in favour of Naveen, as many as 11 candidates were in the fray. Naveen, the five-time chief minister of the state, was considered invincible during the campaign for his towering personality and 24-year rule in the state.
But 48-year-old Laxman Bag, who is made of different mettle, was not to be cowed down by the enviable electoral record of Naveen. He pooled all his resources and made labour migration, which is crying issue in the area, as his main agenda to target the BJD government.
Bag, who has mentioned his educational qualification as Matriculation in the affidavit filed with the nomination papers, is not only well conversant in the local culture and dialect but also the preferences of the electorate. Being the son of soil also endeared him to the voters while charisma of the BJP’s Central leaders and hard work of the party cadres helped him craft a surprise victory over Naveen.
