The Hindu : BJD bags Nayagarh Assembly seat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

Other States

Other States - Orissa

BJD bags Nayagarh Assembly seat

By Prafulla Das

BHUBANESWAR JULY 4. The "transparent Government and clean administration" slogan of the Biju Janata Dal chief and Orissa Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, seems to have helped his party in winning another by-poll in the State. The party bagged the Nayagarh Assembly seat today, elections for which was held on Monday.

The BJD nominee, Mandakini Behera, won the seat defeating her main rival and Congress candidate, Sitakant Mishra, by a margin of 14,758 votes. Ms. Behera got 56,740 votes, while Mr. Mishra secured 41,982. Bijay Nayak of the Bharipa Bahujan Mahasangh got 2,821 votes.

The election was necessitated following the death of the School and Mass Education Minister, Bhagabat Behera, who had been elected from the constituency five times.

The BJD fielded his widow, Ms. Behera, despite opposition from some senior members of the party on the ground that she was never in public life. However, the party leadership decided in her favour thinking that she might get some sympathy vote. Another reason was that there were at least five other aspirants for the party ticket.

As the local unit of the BJD lacked unity and Ms. Behera was not familiar with the electorate, it was Mr. Patnaik himself who led the party's campaign in the constituency for four days.

And the impressive victory has come as yet another shot in the arm for Mr. Patnaik and is proof that popular support for him was still undiminished. This would certainly help him silence his critics as the win is the third consecutive one for the BJD in the three Assembly by-polls held in the State — the two other being in Rairakhol last year and in Bhadrak in May.

Reacting to Ms. Behera's victory, Mr. Patnaik said he was happy that a woman MLA had been elected in the international year of women's empowerment.

For the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee president, Sarat Patnaik, the defeat of his party has come as yet another blow to his position. After losing in Bhadrak, he had extensively campaigned in Nayagarh hoping to see his party nominee win the polls.

Mr. Sarat Patnaik, who took charge as president of the party's State unit a few months ago, cannot be entirely blamed for the defeat.

Even before he could strengthen his position in the party, there have been four elections in the State — the Rajya Sabha polls, the panchayat elections and the by-polls in Bhadrak and Nayagarh.

The only solace for him is the decrease in the BJD's victory margin in Nayagarh compared to the February 2000 elections when it had won the seat by a margin of 30,000 votes.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Other States

Stories in this Section

BJD bags Nayagarh Assembly seat