Bhubaneswar: The BJP won 24 Assembly seats in Odisha on Tuesday and was leading in 56 other constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India.
The Biju Janata Dal won 18 seats and was leading in 31 constituencies out of the 147 Assembly seats, it said.
Odisha Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik was trailing BJP’s Laxman Bag by 10,460 votes in the Kantabanji Assembly seat in Bolangir district.
The BJD supremo was leading by 4,355 votes over his BJP rival Sisir Kumar Mishra in the Hinjili seat, the other seat he is contesting in Ganjam district.
The Congress won two seats and was ahead in 12 Assembly segments.
BJP candidate Prithviraj Hairchandran won the Chilika Assembly constituency defeating his nearest BJD rival Raghunath Sahu by 4,566 votes while saffron party candidate Ashwini Kumar Sarangi won the Bargarh Assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival Debesh Acharya of BJD by 4,772 votes.
BJP’s Durga Prasad Tanti won the Raghunathpalli assembly segment by a margin of 5,774 votes defeating his nearest rival Archanarekha Behera of BJD.
The saffron party’s Tankadhar Tripathy won the Jharsuguda assembly segment by defeating his nearest rival Depali Das of BJD by 1,333 votes.
BJP candidate Irasis Acharya won from Bhatli constituency defeating BJD candidate and former minister Susanta Singh by 27,892 votes.
BJP chief whip in Odisha Assembly Mohan Charan Majhi won the Assembly poll from the Keonjhar seat defeating his nearest rival Mina Majhi of BJD by 11,577 votes.
The other BJP nominees who won are – Bhabani Shankar Bhoi (Talsara), Padma Charan Haiburu (Karanjia), Kanhai Charan Danga (Kantamal), Dusmanta Kumar Swain (Khandapada), Fakir Mohan Naik (Telkoi), Sanat Gartia (Bijepur), Prasanta Kumar Jagadev (Khurda), Raghunath Jagadala (Birmaharajpur), Narasinga Madkami (Malkangiri), Ganesh Ramsing Khuntia (Jashipur),Sanjali Murmu (Bangriposi), Sudhir Ranjan Pattjoshi (Dharamgarh) and Saroj Kumar Pradhan (Boudh).
Senior BJD leader and Odisha Assembly speaker Pramila Mallik won from Binjharpur constituency. Mallik won the seat by defeating her nearest BJP rival Babita Mallick by 2,856 votes.
BJD candidate Sarada Prasad Nayak won the Rourkela assembly seat by defeating his nearest rival Dilip Kumar Ray of BJP by 3,552 votes.
The other BJD candidates who won the Assembly poll are—Braja Kishore Pradhan (Talcher), Adhiraj Mohan Panigrahi (Khariar), Manohar Randhari (Dabugam), Chakramani Kanhar (Baliguda), Devi Ranjan Tripathy (Banki), Sudarshan Haripal (Rengali), Abhimanyu Sethi (Anandpur), Naba Kishor Mallick (Jayadev), Prasanna Acharya (Rairakhol), Romancha Ranjan Biswal (Deogarh), Badri Narayan Patra (Ghasipura), Biswa Ranjan Mallick (Bari), Pradip Kumar Dishari (Lanjigarh), Sunil Kumar Mohanty (Puri), and Ramesh Chandra Behera (Daspalla).
Congress candidate Mangu Khilla won the Chitrakonda Assembly segment by defeating his nearest rival Dambaru Sisa of BJP by 9,151 votes.
At least eight ministers in Naveen Patnaik’s cabinet are trailing in the Odisha assembly election.
Forest and Environment Minister Pradip Kumar Amat, Works Minister Prafulla Kumar Mallik, Higher Education minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak, Transport minister Tukuni Sahu, Science and Technology Minister Ashok Chandra Panda, Finance Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha, Handlooms & Textiles Minister Rita Sahu and Women & Child Development Minister Basanti Hembram are trailing.
Other prominent BJD leaders trailing are Debi Prasad Mishra, Kallikesh Narayan Singh Deo, Susanta Singh, Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik, Prafulla Samal, Snehangini Chhuria, Pushpendra Singh Deo, Ramesh Majhi and Dibya Shankar Mishra.
CPI(M) candidate was leading in one Assembly seat while Independents were leading in three seats.
The BJD in the 2019 Assembly elections had won 113 seats while BJP got 23 seats followed by Congress 9 seats.
PNN & Agencies