Odisha bypolls: BJD wrests Balasore from BJP, retains Tirtol

The ruling BJD in Odisha on Tuesday wrested the Balasore assembly seat from the BJP and retained Tirtol in the bypolls held last week, with its candidates beating the BJP nominees and pushing the Congress to the third place.
As the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidates emerged victories in both the assembly segments, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his gratitude to the people for exercising their franchise amid the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting his party.

In Balasore, BJD candidate Swarup Kumar Das defeated his nearest BJP nominee Manas Kumar Dutta by a margin of 13,351 votes. Das bagged 84,097 votes while Dutta polled 70,746 votes, Chief Electoral Officer S K Lohani said.

Congress candidate Mamata Kundu was relegated to the third place, securing 4,983 votes in Balasore, which had emerged as a stronghold of the BJP, whose candidate late Madan Mohan Dutta had won the 2019 assembly elections.

In the Tirtol assembly segment in Jagatsinghpur district, BJD”s Bijay Shankar Das trounced BJP candidate Rajkishore Behera by a margin of 41,703 votes

While Das polled 88,310 votes, Behera bagged 46,607 votes. Congress nominee Himanshu Bhushan Mallick got 28,778 votes, Lohani said.

By-election was held in Tirtol, a traditional stronghold of the BJD, as sitting MLA Bishnu Charan Das died. It was BJD”s fourth win in the seat.

The BJD candidate, who is the son of late Bishnu Charan Das, secured 52.91 per cent of the 1,66,921 votes polled in the by-election.

In Balasore, the bypoll was necessitated by the death of BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta.

The BJD candidate secured 51.8 per cent of the 1,62,339 votes polled in the bypoll, defeating Dutta, the son of the late legislator.

It was the maiden assembly election for both the winning candidates.

As BJD workers celebrated the wins, the chief minister congratulated the party candidates.

“The victory is a reflection of the people”s love and support for Biju Janata Dal,” he said.

Patnaik also thanked the party workers and said BJD will work wholeheartedly for the development and welfare of the people