Jharsuguda: Governing BJD once again proved that it doesn’t have a strong political opponent in Odisha by ensuring a landslide victory in the by-election to Brajrajnagar MLA seat.
BJD candidate Alaka Mohanty won the election with a thumping majority of 93,953 votes while her rivals in Congress and BJP got 27,831 and 22,630 votes in the by-poll. Alaka, the widow of late Kishore Mohanty has won the seat with a margin of 66,122.
As per Election Commission data, a total of 1,53,398 votes were polled during the by-poll held on May 31. This includes 1,53,096 votes through EVM and 302 through postal ballot.
Alaka got 61.25 per cent of total votes, her nearest Congress rival Kishore Patel got 18.14 per cent of votes, while BJP candidate Radharani Panda was in third place with 14.75 percent of votes.
Ramesh Kumar Tripathy from CPI got 3105 votes whereas 1511 voters have selected NOTA (none of the above).
The ruling BJD has not lost a single Assembly by-poll since 2019. From one after another, the BJD became stronger in the State. The party won the by-election held for Bijepur, Balasore, Tirtol and Pipili MLA seats. Among the four seats, Balasore seat was with BJP.
This is the first time since the 2019 Lok Sabha polls that the BJP clinched the third spot, with the Congress coming up in the second spot. The ruling party workers started celebrations with crackers and beating drums.
The by-poll was necessitated as MLA Kishore Mohanty, the husband of the BJD candidate, died in December last year.
