Bhubaneswar: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to form government in Odisha alone for the first time as the saffron front crossed the magic number of 74 by capturing 78 Assembly seats in the just concluded Assembly as well as Parliamentary elections.
The party also made a near-clean sweep in the Lok Sabha elections by securing 20 seats out of 21. The ruling BJD failed to open account while Congress managed to retain its Koraput Lok Sabha constituency.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik who contested the Assembly polls from Hinjili and Kantabanji has won from his own bastion Hinjili while lost from Kantabanji. Laxman Bag of BJP defeated the CM from Kantabanji by a margin of 16,321 votes. Patnaik, however, retained Hinjili seat in a close contest.
BJD heavyweight Pranap Prakash Das, party general secretary (organisation) lost to Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan from Sambalpur parliamentary constituency.
Similarly, several BJP heavyweights like Bhartruhari Mahtab, Baijayant Panda, Aparajita Sarangi, Sambit Patra and Jual Oram also won the Lok Sabha polls from their respective seats.
Surprisingly, BJP state president Manmohan Samal and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Sarat Pattnaik lost the battle.
The Congress, which had captured nine seats in 2019 Assembly election, has taken the tally to 14 this time.
