BJP opens its account in 45 assembly, 9 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: The BJP won for the first time in 45 assembly constituencies and nine Lok Sabha (LS) seats in Odisha in the recently concluded simultaneous polls, an analysis by TOI of the results revealed. The party won a total of 78 seats in the 147-member assembly and 20 out of 21 LS seats in the state.
The nine parliamentary seats where the BJP made its winning debut are Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Kandhamal, Cuttack, Kendrapada, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Aska, constituting about 45% of the 20 seats it won.
The 45 (57%) out of the 78 assembly constituencies where the BJP scripted its maiden success are Bijepur, Bargarh, Attabira, Jharsuguda, Telkoi, Bangriposi, Karanjia, Morada, Simulia, Bhadrak, Barachana, Sukinda, Hindol, Kamakhyanagar, Parjanga, Angul, Chhendipada, Birmaharajpur, Titlagarh, Kantabanji, Jharigram, Nabarangpur, Dharmagarh, Phulbani, Kantamal, Boudh, Niali, Mahakalapada, Paradip, Jagatsinghpur, Satyabadi, Ekamra-Bhubaneswar, Khurda, Khandapada, Bhanjanagar, Polasara, Kabisurya Nagar, Khallikote, Aska, Gopalpur, Berhampur, Digapahandi, Chikiti, Kotpad and Koraput.
"Most of those seats were considered as invincible BJD bastions. But we witnessed an unprecedented mandate in favour of the BJP this time. BJD strongholds of Ganjam, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Puri and Jagatsinghpur districts were breached by the BJP," said Binayak Mishra, a political observer.
BJP attributed its success to its 'Odia asmita' (identity) campaign and the Narendra Modi wave. "People of the state supported us on Odia asmita and several other issues. They wanted a change for a developed Odisha under Modi ji's leadership," state BJP president Manmohan Samal said.
BJD has started a postmortem to find out the reasons behind the collapse of its fortress. BJD president and outgoing chief minister Naveen Patnaik already held a meeting with the 51 elected MLAs. Separate meetings were convened with the 96 defeated MLA and 21 MP candidates. Naveen took their feedback on the plausible factors that led to the BJD's downfall.
Though voting against BJD's election strategist V K Pandian is perceived to be one of the major factors for the party's electoral setback, leaders have so far remained tight-lipped.
"Our party has started the exercise to find out the reasons for the defeat," BJD organisational secretary Pranab Prakash Das, who lost from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat to BJP's Dharmendra Pradhan, said.
Senior BJD member and former minister Shashi Bhusan Behera said, "We would have successfully stopped the BJP surge had BJD involved senior leaders of the party in election management. Many senior BJD members were sidelined."