ONI Bureau: Not long ago, BJP in Odisha had created a big buzz in Odisha politics by winning good number of seats in Zilla Parishad elections and making a bid dent into BJD’s vote share across the state.
However, things changed drastically in the last 9 months. The recent Zilla Parishad bypolls in Balasore and Ganjam came as a big shocker for the BJP. In Balasore Zone No. 26, BJD snatches the seat from BJP.
The BJP candidate had won this Zone by a margin of around 3,500 votes in February last year. But, this time the party lost the seat to BJD by a margin of 4,117 votes.
On the other hand, the Zone No. 58 in Ganjam, where polls were not held, has gone to BJD. The BJD candidate won by 7,937 votes. BJP finished second, while Congress candidate was a distant third.
As the BJD is going aggressive to recover the lost ground and eying a 5th term for CM Naveen Patnaik, the BJP must shed complacency and focus more on building organisational strength as well as reaching out to the masses.