TNI Bureau: Jajpur district and the Parliament constituency, which was once considered to be the fort of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) crumbled as its heavyweight leaders had to taste defeat in the recently concluded elections.
BJD candidates lost their battle in Dharmasala, Sukinda, Korei and Badachana assembly constituencies of the district, which is the home district of BJD’s Organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das.
In Badachana, BJP’s Amar Kumar Nayak defeated the ruling party’s candidate and Odia actress Varsha Priyadarshini, who was contesting her maiden election. He got 71926 votes and defeated Priyadarshini by a margin of 6310 votes.
In Korei assembly seat too, Pranab Prakash Das’ mother Sandhyarani Das had to taste defeat at the hands of Akash Dasnayak. While the BJD nominee got 74012 votes, Dasnayak of BJP pocketed 79658 votes and won the election with a margin of 5646 votes.
Likewise, Minister Pritiranjan Gharai also lost the assembly election from Sukinda constituency. He lost to Pradeep Bal Samanta of BJP by a margin of 9577 votes. Gharai and Samanta polled 77156 and 86733 votes respectively.
Likewise, another heavyweight leader of BJD Pranab Kumar Balabantaray lost in Dharmasala assembly seat to Independent candidate Himanshu Sekhar Sahoo by a margin of 4150 votes. While 75609 people casted their votes for the former, 79759 voters exercised their franchises for the later. The winner, however, returned to BJP.