Bhubaneswar: Ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Dipali Das on Saturday registered a landslide victory in the bypoll to Jharsuguda Assembly constituency in Odisha.
BJD’s Dipali Das won the by-election with a margin of 48,721 votes from nearest rival Tankadhar Tripathy of the BJP.
According to the results announced by the Election Commission, BJD got 1,07,198 votes while the BJP polled 58,477 votes. Congress nominee Tarun Pandey lost his deposits with only 4,496 votes.
A total of 79.21 per cent of 2.21 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the bypoll held on May 10. The by-election was necessitated following the murder of sitting MLA and the then Health Minister Naba Kishore Das on January 29 this year.
In the 2019 Assembly election, BJD had secured 98,620 votes while BJD and Congress got 52,921 and 18,823 votes.
The vote share of both BJD and BJP in this by-poll slightly increased by about 5 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively, while Congress’ vote share went down by about 8 per cent.
In comparison to her father late Naba Das, Dipali got 8,578 more votes and the vote margin also increased by 3,022 votes.
Meanwhile, BJD workers and leaders are celebrating the victory here at the party offices in Sankha Bhawan and also Jharsuguda.
–IANS