BJD fails to retain Nuapada as Odisha's ruling BJP wrests seat by record margin

Bhubaneswar: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrested the Nuapada Assembly seat from Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the principal Opposition party in Odisha, in a keenly contested bypoll, the results of which were declared today.

The byelection to Nuapada Assembly seat was necessitated due to the demise of sitting BJD MLA Rajendra Dholakia on September 8.

The deceased MLA’s son Jay Dholakia, who contested the November 11 bypoll on a BJP ticket, got elected from Nuapada by securing 1,23,869 votes.

Jay defeated his nearest rival Ghasi Ram Majhi of Congress party by a margin of 83,748 votes. Majhi was polled 40,121 votes in the byelection. BJD’s Snehangini Chhuria, a former minister, secured the third position with 38,408 votes.

BJD’s Rajendra Dholakia had defeated Independent nominee Ghasi Ram Majhi in 2024

It is worth mentioning here that Rajendra Dholakia had been elected to the Odisha Assembly from Nuapada seat for four times since 2004.

He first won the Assembly election from Nuapada as an Independent nominee and then retained the seat in 2009, 2019 and 2024 on BJD tickets. He had also served as a minister in the BJD government under the then Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Dholakia had defeated independent nominee Ghasiram Majhi by a margin of around 11,000 votes in 2024 Assembly polls. The former minister had secured 61,822 votes while Majhi was polled 50,941 votes.

BJP candidate Abhinandan Panda, the son of former MP Basanta Panda, had to settle for third position with 44,814 votes. Congress candidate Sarat Patnaik secured the fourth position with 15,501 votes.

Now, BJP has 79 MLAs in Odisha Assembly

With the victory in Nuapada bypoll, the BJP has now 79 MLAs in Odisha Assembly. The party had managed to form government in Odisha for the first time on its own after it secured victory in 78 Assembly seats of the total 147 in 2024 polls. Later, a few independent MLAs declared their support to the ruling party.

The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD got 51 seats while the Congress part came victorious in 14 Assembly segments. The BJD’s Assembly tally went down to 50 after the regional party failed to retain Nuapada segment in the byelection.