Bhubaneswar: BJP posted its best ever performance in the Lok Sabha polls from Odisha as the party won 20 out of 21 seats — a feat lauded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his speech at the BJP headquarters which he started with obeisance to Lord Jagannath, the presiding deity of Odias.
Thanking the people of Odisha, Modi said the BJP will leave no stone unturned in fulfilling the dreams of the people and taking Odisha to new heights of progress. “I am very proud of all our hardworking party Karyakartas for their efforts,” he said.
Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan won from the Sambalpur Lok Sabha constituency by 119,000 votes while Sambit Patra won the Puri seat by over 100,000 votes. In the Bargarh Lok Sabha constituency, Pradeep Purohit led by the highest margin of over 250,000 votes against the BJD’s Parinita Mishra. Former Union minister Pratap Sarangi was up against the BJD’s Lekhashree Samantsinghar on the Balasore Lok Sabha seat by over 141,000 votes while the BJP’s national vice-president Baijayant Panda was leading by over 53,000 votes.
In Mayurbhanj, the BJP’s Naba Charan Majhi won by over 200,000 votes against the BJD’s heavyweight leader Sudam Marndi while in the Aska Lok Sabha constituency, the BJD’s pocket borough, the BJP’s Anita Subhadarshini won by over 96,000 votes. The party won from Kandhamal by over 21,000 votes as its candidate Sukanta Panigrahi defeated Achyuta Samanta of the BJD. In contrast, the BJD was leading only in the Jajpur Lok Sabha seat by a slender margin of 4,500-odd votes.
After it shelved its plans for a pre-poll alliance in March this year with the BJD under pressure from its rank and file, the BJP was the first off the blocks as it decided to make Odia Asmita (Odia pride) its main poll plank harping on the meteoric rise of Tamil Nadu-born VK Pandian, the trusted lieutenant of Naveen Patnaik, as the potential successor to the five-time chief minister. Though Patnaik has been high on political acumen reading the public mood better than his opponents, in 2024 his projection of Pandian as his presumptive successor did not go down well with the party rank and file.
