The Modi factor had little effect on voters in Keonjhar so far as the poll results are concerned. On the contrary, the Naveen Patnaik magic worked wonders. like the 2009 results, the BJD retained all its five Assembly seats while the Champua seat again fell into the hands of an Independent candidate, this time Sanatan Mahakhud.
PCC president Jayadev Jena was defeated by Mayadhar Jena of BJD with a margin of more than 22,124 votes. Similarly, Badrinarayan Patra of BJD won in Ghasipura seat with a record margin of 87,592 votes defeating his nearest BJP rival candidate Satyabrata Panda. Abhiram Nayak, BJD first-timer, defeated
BJP State general secretary Mohan Charan Majhi by a margin of 8,711 votes. Bedbyas Nayak also won the Telkoi seat from which his father Niladri Nayak was MlA for five times. He defeated Congress candidate Dhanurjaya Sidhu by 13,921 votes. Hrusikesh Nayak, sitting BJD MlA, also retained his Patna Assembly seat for the fourth time by defeating Bhawani Naik of BJP.
In Champua, cine star Tatua Prakash Satpathy alias Papu Pom Pom, who was the candidate from the BJD, lost miserably ending up with less than 7,000 votes.
Independent candidate Mahakhud won with a margin of 12,840 votes defeating his nearest rival Kusa Apat. Sakuntala laguri of BJD, wife of the sitting BJD MP Jaswant Narayan Singh laguri, won the lok Sabha seat with a margin of more than a lakh votes defeating BJP candidate Ananta Nayak.
Although Modi had campaigned for the party candidates before the polls in the district, Naveen’s magic proved more effective on the district voters who gave a clear mandate to the BJD candidates.