Bhubaneswar: BJP’s Laxman Bag became a household name in Odisha overnight after he emerged as a ‘giant killer’ by defeating Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the Kantabanji assembly seat in Bolangir district.
Bag, 48, won the Kantabanji seat by 16,344 votes in a massive upset for the five-term CM who fought the elections from two seats. Patnaik won the Hinjili seat by 4,636 votes.
This was Patnaik’s first electoral defeat after entering public life as the MP of Aska in 1998.
“I thank the people of Kantabanji for preferring me over Naveen Patnaik. I will try to meet the aspirations of the people,” Bag said.
“Maybe he is the CM, but I had confidence in my people. I fought with full dedication to win and that has happened,” he added.
Bag said that for him the biggest issue was the lack of employment in the area which was forcing people to migrate elsewhere.
In his election affidavit, he said he was a matric-pass and declared his profession as farmer. There were 12 criminal cases against him.
In the last election, Bag had lost to Santosh Singh Saluja of the Congress by a slender margin of 128 votes in Kantabanji.
PTI