Bhubaneswar: Three independent candidates have been elected to the 17th State Legislative Assembly. Sarada Pradhan (Bulu) was elected as an independent candidate from the Mahanga seat of Cuttack district after defeating Ankit Pratap Jena of BJD by a margin of 7423 votes.
Similarly, independent candidate Bijaya Kumar Dalabehera has been elected from the Badamba assembly seat in Cuttack district. He defeated his nearest rival Debiprasad Mishra of BJD by a margin of 23,479 votes.
Also, another independent candidate, Himanshu Shekhar Sahoo won from Jajpur’s Dharmashala Assembly seat, after defeating BJD candidate Pranab Kumar Balabantaray by a margin of 4150 votes. Incidentally, these three victorious independent candidates were denied tickets by the BJP.
This apart, CPM candidate Laxman Munda has retained his post from the Bonai assembly constituency. He has been elected to the State Legislative Assembly for the fourth time as a CPM candidate. He was an MLA from 2004 to 2009, from 2014 to 2019 and from 2019 to 2024. In seat sharing with Congress, Munda defeated BJD candidate Bhimsen Choudhury by a margin of 23,439 votes.
