Only a six per cent swing in favour of the BJD gave a landslide victory to the Naveen Patnaik-led party while a drop of about 6.7 per cent in Congress’ vote share led to the rout of the national party, which failed to open its account in the Parliamentary elections in the State.
On the other hand, the vote share of the BJP mounted to 21.5 per cent from 16.89 per cent garnered in 2009 lok Sabha elections as the party won one seat with its senior leader Jual Oram emerging victorious in Sundargarh constituency. BJP had drawn a blank in 2009 lok Sabha polls.
The BJD swept the lok Sabha polls grabbing 20 of the 21 lok Sabha and 117 of the 147 Assembly seats in the State propelled by a big jump in its vote share. In 2009 elections, the BJD had won 103 Assembly and 14 lok Sabha seats.
The party’s vote share in lok Sabha polls witnessed a steep rise to touch 44.1 per cent this time as compared to 37.23 per cent in 2009 general elections, raising its tally by six seats, official statistics show.
Statistics shows BJD’s vote share has been steadily rising in successive elections. In 2004 lok Sabha polls, the regional party had secured30.02 per cent votes to win 11 seats, when it was in alliance with the BJP.
In the Assembly elections also, the BJD’s vote share shot up to 43.4 per cent as against 38.8 per cent in the last polls as the party’s strength in the 147-member House increased by 14 seats.
In sharp contrast to BJD’s performance, the vote share of Congress nosedived to 26 per cent in this lok Sabha polls as compared to 32.75 per cent in 2009.
The Congress had won six lok Sabha seats in the State in 2009 when its vote share had recorded a fall of about 8 per cent from 40.43 per cent polled in 2004 polls.
Interestingly, NOTA was opted by 3, 32,780 voters with a share of 1.5 per cent in the lok Sabha polls. Similarly, 1.3 per cent of voters numbering 2, 71,336 chose to press NOTA in the EVMs in the Assembly elections.