BJP Set To Form Government In Victory in Odisha

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is poised to enter government in Odisha alone for the first time after winning 78 Assembly seats in the recently concluded Parliamentary and Assembly elections, surpassing the symbolic threshold of 74. Additionally, the party won 20 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats, almost completing a clean sweep. While Congress was able to hold onto its Koraput Lok Sabha seat, the ruling BJD was unable to explain itself.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who ran in both Kantabanji and Hinjili for the Assembly, lost in Kantabanji but won in his home district. By a margin of 16,321 votes, Laxman Bag of the BJP defeated the chief minister from Kantabanji. But after a close race, Patnaik was able to hold onto the Hinjili seat. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who represents the Sambalpur parliamentary constituency, defeated BJD heavyweight Pranap Prakash Das, the party’s general secretary (organization).

Similar to this, a number of prominent members of the BJP, including Jual Oram, Aparajita Sarangi, Baijayant Panda, Sambit Patra, and Bhartruhari Mahtab, also prevailed in their respective Lok Sabha elections. Surprisingly, Sarat Pattnaik of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) and Manmohan Samal, the state president of the BJP, lost. After winning nine seats in the 2019 Assembly election, the Congress has now increased the total to fourteen.