Cuttack: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has managed to retain its dominance in the electoral politics of Cuttack district.
Candidates of the regional party have been elected from eight Assembly constituencies out of nine in Cuttack district in the just concluded elections.
The BJD has lost only one seat to Congress in Cuttack. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has failed to win any of the Assembly segment in the district despite launching a high profile campaign in the 2019 elections.
However, nominees of the saffron party have secured second positions at several constituencies in the district. Despite its victory in Barabati-Cuttack segment, the Congress party slipped to third position in several constituencies in Cuttack district.
In 2014 Assembly elections, BJD candidates had won eight Assembly segments in Cuttack district while the nominee of Congress party was elected from one constituency.
Congress party’s Prakash Behera had won Salipur Assembly seat by a slender margin in 2014 elections. However, Behera left Congress and fought the 2019 Assembly elections on a BJP ticket from Salipur.
According to the poll results, Devi Ranjan Tripathy of BJD has defeated Congress nominee Debashis Patnaik by a margin of 24, 118 votes from Banki constituency in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Tripathy, a newcomer, has managed to secure 74, 599 votes while Patnaik was polled 50, 481 votes. BJP candidate Shubhranshu Mohan Padhi is at third position by securing 32, 541 votes.
In Baramba Assembly segment, BJD candidate Debi Mishra has defeated BJP nominee Bijay Kumar Dal Behera by a margin of 18,019 votes. Mishra was polled altogether 90,564 votes while Dal Behera got 72, 545 votes. Congress candidate Bobby Mohanty has secured only 6,224 votes.
Earlier, there were speculations that the saffron party would snatch away Baramba seat from BJD as it had done well in the segment in 2017 panchayat elections in state.
BJD candidate Chandrasarathi Behera has been reelected from Cuttack Sadar Assembly seat. Behera trounced BJP’s Dillip Mallick by 26,079 votes.
As per the data, Behera has been polled 86,329 votes while Mallick got 60,250 votes. Congress nominee Abhisek Mahananda is at third position by securing 6,229 votes.
BJD nominee Pratap Jena has been once again elected from Mahanga Assembly segment by defeating BJP candidate Sarada Pradhan by 29, 585 votes.
Jena has secured 1,06,054 votes while Pradhan got 76,469 votes. Debendra Sahu of Congress has been polled 14, 922 votes.
BJD candidate Pramod Mallick retained Niali Assembly seat by defeating BJP’s Chhabi Mallick by 27,703 votes. Pramod has been polled 94,013 votes while Chhabi got 66,310 votes. Congress nominee Mamata Bhoi slipped to third position with 12, 659 votes.
BJD nominee Prashant Behera won Salipur segment by defeating BJP’s Prakash Behera by 32,210 votes. Altogether, 1, 04, 154 voters have cast their cast their votes in favour of Prashant while 71,944 voters have given their preference to Praksh. Congress nominee Rabindra Nath Kar is at the third position by securing 5,520 votes.
In Athagarh constituency, Ranendra Pratap Swain of BJD has trounced BJP’s Brajendra Ray by 57,995 votes. Swain secured 98, 114 votes while Ray got 40,119 votes. Congress candidate Umaballav Rath was polled 10,945 votes.
BJD’s Souvic Biswal has defeated BJP’s Nayan Kishore Mohanty from Choudwar-Cuttack segment by 21,584 votes. Biswal was polled 64,686 votes while Mohanty got 43,102 votes. Congress candidate Jagdish Chandra Mohanty, a former bureaucrat, was pushed to fourth position with 6,761 votes.
Though the Congress party has performed badly in the 2019 polls, its nominee Muhammad Moquim managed to snatch away Barabati-Cuttack seat from BJD. Moquim was polled 50,244 votes while BJD’s Debashish Samantaray got 46, 417 votes. The victory margin was 3,874 votes. BJP’s Sameer Dey is at third position by securing 33, 825 votes.