New Delhi:
Naveen Patnaik, the BJD Supremo, is currently leading in the Bijepur Assembly Elections. Patnaik, who has been the chief minister of Odisha since 2000, is eyeing a record term. In the early trends, the BJD was leading in over 40 seats with the Congress and the BJP still not touching double digits. This is the first time that Naveen Patnaik is fighting an assembly elections from two seats, with the other one being in Hinjili. Odisha was one of the four states that saw the Lok Sabha Elections and the State Assembly Elections being held simultaneously in first four stages on April 11, 18, 23 and 29. The Odisha Assembly has 147 seats. In the 2014 Odisha Assembly Elections, the BJD won 117 out of 147 seats while the BJP secured just 10 seats with the Congress winning 16. In the Lok Sabha Elections in 2014, the BJD won 20 out of the 21 seats with the BJP winning just one seat from Sundargarh.
In 2014 Lok Sabha Elections, Naveen Patnaik was one of the regional satraps who stood his ground against the Narendra Modi wave. The 2014 polls in Odisha were held in two phases on April 10 and 17. The state sends 21 members in the Lok Sabha and the BJD won 20 seats, while the BJP was able to win a single seat of Sundargarh. Jual Oram defeated BJD's Dilip Kumar Tirkey from the constituency and relegated former chief minister and Congress leader Hemananda Biswal to the third position. The BJD received 94,89,946 votes with a vote share of 44.77 per cent, while the BJP was able to garner 46,38,565 votes in the state with a vote share of 21.88 per cent.
The saffron party came second in Balasore, Bargarh, Bhubaneswar, Bolangir, Dhenkanal, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar and Sambalpur. The Congress got more votes than the BJP in the elections but drew a blank. The party got 55,91,380 votes with 26.38 per cent of the vote share. According to our analysis, the BJD was ahead in 116 Assembly segments during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The Congress was leading on 11 and the BJP on 20. In 2009 Lok Sabha Elections, the BJD was successful on 14 seats and the Congress won 6. The BJP was not able to open its account in the state.
