BJD’s very claim that it could win at least five Assembly seats and the Parliament seat in Sundargarh district proved wrong as the party had to be satisfied with two Assembly seats despite the Naveen wave in the State.
Even the point man in the BJD Kalpataru Das’s blue-eyed boy Sarada Nayak lost the polls. BJP heavyweight Dilip Ray trounced Nayak by a respectable margin of 11,000 votes.It was a personal blow to Naveen Patnaik as during the campaign trail he had conducted a road show in the entire Rourkela constituency and had a night halt in Rourkela to appease voters.
“Thanks to the determined efforts of Ray and his team which fetched victory to him while the BJD candidate exercised resources and muscle power to wrest the seat,” said a beaming close aide of Ray.Narendra Modi’s visit to the steel city also helped Ray garner greater support, said Ray’s another supporter. He said most of the Women Self-help Groups (WSHG) supported Ray.
Ray had won the seat for the first time in 1985 on a Janata Dal ticket. He retained the constituency in 1990 and became a Minister in the Biju Patnaik-led Government then.As MlA in 1995, Ray was instrumental in creating the Rourkela Municipality. later, as the Union Steel Minister, he had ensured a rehabilitation package of Rs 8,900 crore to the Rourkela Steel Plant which was the highest in the category after the Independence.
After leaving the BJD, Ray had joined the Congress when Sarada Nayak was there in the party. Nayak then quit the Congress and joined the BJD in 2004 to script a meteoric rise. Nayak had won the seat on BJD ticket both in 2004 and 2009 elections. Of course, the Raghunathpali result was a little relief for the BJD as it retained the seat and sitting MlA Subrat Tarai (49,074 votes) defeated BJP candidate Jagabandhu Behera (33,033 votes) by a margin of 16,041 votes. The Rajgangpur result is also a relief for the BJD as its candidate Mangala Kissan (54,596 votes) defeated sitting Congress MlA Gregory Minz (44560 votes) by 10,036 votes.
In Bonai in a multi-corner fight, BJD candidate Dayanidhi Kissan (37,307 votes) lost to CPI(M) candidate laxman Munda (39,125 votes) in a thin margin of 1818 votes. Similarly, in Talsara the party candidate Binay Kumar Toppo (44,251 votes) lost to sitting Congress MlA Dr Prafulla Majhi (45,689 votes) in a thin margin of 1,438 votes. In Sundargarh Assembly seat, Congress candidate Jogesh Singh (66,138 votes) retained the seat defeating BJD’s Kusum Tete (53,554votes) by 12,548 votes. But in Biramitrapur, the BJD has to be satisfied with a fourth position as its candidate Magdali Kangodi got only 25, 158 votes while sitting MlA George Tirkey of Samata Kranti Dal won with seat by getting 46,114 votes. His nearest rival was BJP’s Shankar Oram (34,167 votes).
Similarly, while in the BJD swept with 20 out of 21 Parliament seats in Sundargarh, hockey icon Dilip Tirkey (3,21,629 votes) lost to BJP’s national vice president and former Union Minister Jual Oram (3,40,508 votes) by 18,879 votes. Congress MP Hemamnanda Biswal stood in third position with 2, 69,335 votes. Sundargarh is the only district where CPI (M) and Samata Kranti Dal were able to open their accounts and the BJP got its only Parliament seat.