Odisha bypoll: BJP gloats over coming second; Congress blames BJD

Reported by Chinmaya Dehury
Bhubaneswar, Oct 19:

Even as BJD candidate Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh emerged victorious with a huge margin in the by-polls for Kandhamal Parliamentary constituency, the Odisha BJP has said it is happy with the increase in voting percentage while a demoralised Congress decided to go for self introspection.

“We hardly got 11 days for campaigning and to be prepared for the by-election. But in the limited days we had, we were able to increase out vote share by 11% in the constituency. We could have increased our vote share even further had we got more time,” said senior BJP leader Bijay Mohapatra, who was steering the campaign for the BJP.

The party also expressed its satisfaction at having come second and relegating the Congress to the third position.

“While the Congress failed to retain its position in the elections, BJP has won the trust of people. The party has improved its position in the state politics by pushing the Congress to the third position. Besides, we have managed to induct many leaders of Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency into the party,” said Mohapatra in a press release.

On the other hand, the Congress which continued its losing spree under the leadership of PCC president Jaydev Jena, preferred to blame the ruling BJD for the poll debacle instead of its leadership failure. “The BJD has violated every norm of poll code during the campaigning. It also resorted to power cuts a day before the polling to distribute cash,” said Jena.

He, however, said the party would introspect to find out the cause for the drubbing it received in the polls.