The Biju Janata Dal headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has registered an emphatic victory by winning as many as 20 of the 21 the Lok Sabha seats in Odisha and 117 seats in the 147-member State Assembly.
Mr. Patnaik, who led his party to an unprecedented victory in the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls by challenging both Congress and BJP, was set to become the Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive term.
According the official announcement of the results made by the Election Commission on Saturday, the BJP won the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat where its candidate former Union Minister Jual Oram emerged victorious by defeating BJD nominee and ace hockey player Dilip Tirkey by a margin of 18829 votes. The Congress failed to win even a single Lok Sabha seat in the State.
The BJD had won 14 Lok Sabha seats, while Congress had won six and Communist Party of India one in the 2009 election. The BJP had failed to win any Lok Sabha seat in 2009.
Of the 147 Assembly seats, the BJD bagged 117, Congress 16, BJP 10, CPI(M) one, Samata Kranti Dal one and Independents two.
In the 2009 Assembly polls, the BJD had won 103 Assembly seats in 2009, while Congress had won 27 and BJP six.
The division of the anti-BJD votes among the opposition parties helped the BJD register a clean sweep in both Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the State, according to political analysts.
The Modi wave, which helped the BJP increase its vote share with regard to both Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the State, apparently helped the BJD in winning more number of Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in comparison to the simultaneous polls held in 2009.
After the initial trends indicated a massive victory for his party on Friday, Mr. Patnaik had thanked the people for reposing their faith in the good governance of his government and his party’s commitment to serve the interests of the State. He had also specially thanked the women of the State for voting for BJD in large numbers.
In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJD bagged 44.1 per cent votes, while Congress got 26.0 per cent and BJP 21.5 per cent.
As regards the vote share in the Assembly polls, BJD got 43.4 per cent of votes, while the Congress got 25.7 per cent and BJP 18.0 per cent.
