Odisha Bypoll: Jump In BJD-BJP Vote Share; Congress Votes Nosedive In Jharsuguda

Bhubaneswar: The spectacular victory of Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Deepali Das in Jharsuguda Assembly by-election in Odisha was marked by a considerable rise in the vote share of the ruling party.

An analisis of the votes polled by different candidates in the bypoll showed that the share of both BJD and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) increased considerably in the constituency. However, the vote share of Congress witnessed a sharp fall.

Deepali, daughter of slain minister Naba Kishore Das whose murder led to the by-election, polled nearly 5 per cent more votes than what her father had got in 2019 elections.

Similarly, BJP candidate Tankadhar Tripathy has polled around 3.2 per cent more votes than what his party nominee Dinesh Jain had bagged in 2019 election in Jharsuguda Assembly constituency.

On its part, Congress, which once dominated the political turf in Jharsuguda, has lost nearly 8.5 per cent votes this time compared to the votes garnered by party candidate Mahendra Naik in 2019.

While the ruling BJD polled around 60.93 per cent votes in Jharsuguda bypoll, BJP garnered over 33.25 per cent and Congress received 2.55 per cent of the votes cast on May 10.

Compared to 2019, the votes of BJD went up by 8,578 this time. In 2019, Nab Das had got 98,620 votes, while his daughter  Deepali polled 1,07198 votes.

Similarly, compared to 2019, BJP’s votes also increased. This time, BJP got about 5,556 more votes. In 2019, BJP’s Dinesh Jain got 52,921 votes, while this time Tankadhar 58,477 votes.

However, Congress candidate Tarun Pandey got 14,350 votes less than what party nominee Mahendra Naik had polled in 2019.  In the last election, Congress had got 18,823 votes, while it polled 4496 votes in the by-election.