Congress candidate from Jeypore, Tara Prasad Bahinipati defeated his nearest BJD rival School and Mass Education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda by a margin of 7,000 votes in a multi-cornered contest. Nanda was trailing since the beginning of the first round of the counting till the result was declared. The defeat of the Minister is considered a great setback for In 2009, Bahinipati was denied a ticket by his own party at the eleventh hour, which had forced him to join the BJP, which was almost a non-entity in Jeypore then. As Koraput Assembly seat is reserved for tribals, Bahinipati had no other option but to move to Jeypore, the only general constituency in the district.
The 2009 battle between the two titans Rabi Narayan Nanda and Tara Prasad Bahinipati, was full of suspense and high drama. The BJD leader polled 57,504 votes, while Bahinipati received 48,188. The victory margin was 9,316. Everyone was of the opinion that had Bahinipati contested the polls on a Congress ticket, Nanda would not have become a Minister.
A lot has changed since then. Bahinipati rejoined the Congress and started his campaign with renewed efforts. Although his hard work failed to bear any fruit in the recently concluded Municipal polls, he was confident of giving a tough fight to Nanda in the Assembly polls.
The BJD candidates from laxmipur, Hema Gamang and Raghuram Machha from Koraput have also lost their seats to their Congress rivals, Kalish Kulesika and Krushna Sagaria respectively. However, BJD candidates, Subash Gond, State Science and Technology Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi and Manohar Randhari came out successful in retaining their seats from Umerkote, Jarigaon and Nabarangpur Assembly constituencies. BJD candidate Prafulla Pangi who is son of senior BJD leader Jairam Pangi also won the Pottangi Assembly segment in Koraput district. In neighbouring Rayagada district, State SC and ST Development Minister lalbihari Himirika too retained the seat by defeating his Congress rival there.
In Kotpad Assembly constituency, Congress candidate Chandra Sekhar Majhi won the seat securing a total of 71017 votes, while BJD candidate Ashok Pangi got 39,697 votes and BJP’s Padmanabh Majhi got 20,699 votes.