Congress emerges closest rival of BJD in Odisha bypolls

The BJP has been fashioning itself as the main Opposition party in the state even as a Congress was finding it difficult to match its previous performance

The thumping victory in bypoll in Brajrajnagar might have once again underlined the continuing supremacy of Naveen Patnaik-led BJD in Odisha with the Opposition still struggling to find a foot in state politics but runner-up Congress is seeing a silver line despite it being a distant runner-up.

Amid fears of it being relegated to irrelevance in another state, the Congress has managed to emerge as the nearest rival of the winning BJD candidate by pushing the BJP to the third spot.

The BJP has been fashioning itself as the main Opposition party in the state even as a beleaguered Congress was finding it difficult to match its previous performance. Though Congress Kishore Chandra Patel lost over 66,000 votes to BJD’s Alaka Mohanty, Congress is happy that it emerged second and saved the deposit.

For the BJP, it was humiliation in Brajrajnagar, as its candidate Radharani Panda not only was pushed to third position but also failed to get one-sixth of the votes polled and thus lost the deposit. Patel got 5,201 votes more than Panda, who had won in 2014 and stood second in the 2019 Assembly polls.

In 2019, Congress did not contest the seat as the segment was allotted to CPI, which fought the seat as an alliance partner.

The BJP was trying to emerge as the main Opposition in Odisha but the bypoll results have dampened their spirits. Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, a senior leader from the state, had monitored the campaign.

However, Alaka, whose husband Kishore Mohanty’s death necessitated the bypoll, won comfortably.

While BJP is trying to find solace that Alaka had the advantage of a sympathy wave, it is yet to answer how its candidate slipped to the third position and lost deposit. Congress, on the other hand, found a new ray of hope in its performance.

Late last month, Congress had replaced Niranjan Patnaik as Odisha party president with Sarat Pattanayak. Niranjan Patnaik was facing revolt from within, amid the party was unable to successfully counter the BJD, which has been in power since 2000.