Bhubaneswar: BJD candidate Sambit Routray won Paradip Assembly seat in Jagatsinghpur district while his father and senior BJP leader Damadar Rout suffered a huge defeat, perhabs biggest in his political career in the2019 Odisha Assembly elections.
Sambit Routray registered a comfort victory in Paradip beating his nearest rival – BJP’s Sampad Chandra Swain and Congress’ Arindam Sarkhel.
The BJD nominee polled 69,737 votes, while Swain got 34,842 votes and Sarkhel was in the second position with 48,756 votes.
On the other hand, Sambit Routray’s father Damadar Rout,jumped the ship from BJD to Saffron party on the eve of the elections after being expelled from the BJD for his anti-party activities, had faced humiliating defeat in his political career.
Dama Rout, often known for his controversial racial statements, had conceded huge defeat to BJD’s Raghunandan Das in the Erasama-Balikuda Assembly constituency in Jagatsinghpur district.
In the 2014 assembly elections, Dama Rout enjoyed a candid win from Paradip seat polling more than 59 per cent of votes as a BJD candidate.
The 2019 electoral battle turned very tough for Dama Rout and got just 37,611 votes, while the BJD’s winning candidate got 103814 votes.
Dama’s defeat is another addition to the list of leaders like Baijayant Panda, who faced similar fate in the 2019 elections after being shown exit doors from the BJD.