BJD candidate Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh trounced her nearest BJP rival Rudra Madab Ray by a massive margin of 2,98,868 votes in the lok Sabha by-election in the Kandhamal constituency.
Congress candidate Abhimanyu Behera came as a poor third. The Congress had in the last general elections finished second.
The counting of votes polled in the October 15 bypoll was done on Sunday. The by-election had been necessitated by the death of incumbent MP Hemendra Chandra Singh, husband of Pratyusha Rajeshwari.
While Pratyusha Rajeshwari polled 4,77,529 votes, Ray got 1,78,661 and Behera 90,536.
During the 2014 April general elections, Hemendra Singh had won by a margin of 1,81,000 votes. Though there was less polling in the bypoll, the BJD took a lead of nearly three lakh votes
Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik thanked the voters of Kandhamal for supporting the ruling party in a big way.
It seemed that though the BJP this time gained a substantial number of Congress votes, it hardly harmed the BJD vote bank.
BJP campaign committee chief Bijay Mohapatra said the party’s vote share on the constituency increased by 11 per cent compared to the last general election.
“We got only 11 days for campaigning, but we increased our vote share by 11 per cent in a few days,” said Mohapatra, adding that the result showed an increasing trend in favour of the saffron party for the future elections in the State.