Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday once again proved his invincibility as his party Biju Janata Party (BJD) registered an emphatic victory in the Assembly by-elections in Odisha.
Riding high on the popularity of Naveen Patnaik and his people-oriented development works, the ruling BJD continues to maintain its winning streak in elections – be it general or by-elections.
The BJD has retained the Tirtol Assembly seat in Jagatsinghpur with huge margin and snatched the Balasore Sadar seat from the BJP.
Bijay Shankar Das defeated his nearest rival BJP’s Rajkishore Behera by a margin of 41,703 votes to retain the seat for the ruling party.
The Chief Minister-led party has polled 88,310 votes after the completion of counting of votes, as per reports from the ground. The BJP secured 46,607 votes and the Congress 28,778 votes.
In Balasore, BJD’s Swarup Das won the by-election with a margin of 13,351 votes.
While, the BJD secured 84,097 votes, the BJP and Congress got 70,746 and 4983 votes respectively.
The voter turnout in Balasore and Tirtol assembly segments was 70.69 and 69.66 per cent, respectively.