Samikhsya Bureau
As many as 29 candidates have won the 2019 Odisha Assembly election with a low margin of less than five thousand votes. As many as 14 candidates of ruling BJD including Minister and former Ministers, ten candidates of the BJP and three Congress candidates lost the elections to their nearest rival candidates with a margin ranging from 1,124 to more than 4,000 votes.
Revenue and disaster management minister Maheswar Mohanty lost the election to his nearest rival Jayant Kumar Sarangi of the BJP by a margin of 4,008 votes. Former ministers Lal Bihari Himrika contesting for the Rayagada assembly seat lost to Karkanda Muduli (Ind) by a margin of 4,870 votes.
Similarly former minister Sanjay Kumar Das Burma lost to Laltendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra of BJP by a margin of 2,130 votes in Brahmagiri assembly constituency. C.S Razzen Ekka of Congress beat Mangla Kissan, a former minister and a senior BJD leader, in Rajgangpur assembly constituency by a margin of 945 votes only.
The other BJD candidates who lost the election within a margin less than 5,000 were Debasis Samantaray (Barbati- Cuttack), Dushmant Naik (Bhawanipatna), Rajendra Kumar Das (Dhamnagar), Madhab Sardar (Keonjhar), Lambodar Nial (Khariar), Purnabasi Nayak (Mohana), Santosh Khatua (Nilgiri), Basanti Marandi (Rairangpur), Dr.Raseswari Panigrahi (Sambalpur) and Srinath Soren (Udala).
The BJP candidates who were defeated with a margin of less than five thousand are Amar Kumar Nayak (Barchana), Biswaranjan Mallik (Bari), Bibhuti Bhushan Jena (Gopalpur), Kanhai Charan Danga (Kantamal), Rabi Naik (Kuchinda), Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan (Parjang), Jagabandhu Behera (Raghunathpalli), Surama Paadhi (Ranapur), Gobinda Chandra Das (Remuna) and Rakesh Kumar Mallick (Soro).
Similarly the Congress candidates who lost the election are Laxmi Priya Nayak (Chitrakonda), Chandra Sekhar Majhi (Kotpad) and Kailash Chandra Kuleisika (Laxmipur).
Some candidates won the election with a margin of less than one thousand.
Santosh Singh Saluja of Congress won the Kantabanji assembly seat defeating the BJP candidate Laxman Bag by the lowest margin of 128 after a neck to neck fight. BJD candidate Prabhu Jani won the Laxmipur assembly seat defeating Kailash Chandra Kulesika of Congress by a margin of 229 votes.
Odisha commerce and transport minister Nrusingha Charan Sahu (BJD) was lucky to emerge winner in Parjang assembly constituency by securing 740 more votes than his nearest rival Bibhuti Bhushan Pradhan of BJP. In Barchana assembly constituency government Chief Whip Amar Satpathy (BJD) retained the seat defeating his nearest rival Amar Kumar Nayak of BJP by a margin of 1,485 votes.
On the contrast Mr Soumyaranjan Patnaik of BJD defeated his nearest rival Dusmanta Kumar Naik (Ind) by a margin of 81,430 votes. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won the Hinjli Assembly seat defeating BJP candidate Pitambar Acharya by a margin of 60,160 votes and won the Bijepur Assembly seat defeating Sanat Kumar Gartia of BJP by a margin of 57,122 votes.
In Athagarha assembly constituency, R.P. Swain (BJD) beat his rival Brajendra Kumar Ray of BJP by a margin of 57,995 votes and in Balikuda-Ersama Raghunandan Das of BJD beat Lalatendu Mohapatra of Congress by a margin of 54,583 votes. (UNI)
