Odisha Bypoll Was A Challenge For BJD: Pratap Jena

Bhubaneswar: Senior BJD leader Pratap Jena on Wednesday said that the bypolls to Balasore Sadar and Tirtol assembly constituencies was a challenge for his party.

Briefing mediapersons here, he said that the ‘Naveen Mantra’ worked in favour of the BJD in Balasore Sadar.

“After the death of the sitting BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta, the BJP had picked his son Manas Dutta as the party candidate. Despite the sympathy vote in favour of Manas, the Chief Minister chose Swarup Das, a party worker at the grassroots level and the BJD candidate won the bypoll by over 18,000 votes. We are happy with the results,” he added.

Refuting the allegations of the BJP on the massive use of money in Balasore Sadar, Jena said that the saffron party had also spent a huge amount of money to secure victory.

Referring to the victory of the party in Tirtol, he said that the party leadership had chosen Bijay Shankar Das, the son of the Late Bishnu Das, who won by a huge margin of over 40,000 votes.