Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik maintained his aura of invincibility with the ruling BJD registering a thumping victory in the Bijepur assembly by-election defeating the BJP by over 41, 000 votes and wiping out the Congress.

BJD candidate Rita Sahu, widow of Congress leader Subal Sahu, secured over one lakh votes while BJP nominee Ashok Pradhan got 60,000 and Pranay Sahu (Cong) finished with just 10,000 votes. It was a ‘sweet’ victory for the BJD as it had not won the Bijepur seat since 2004 and was faced with a aggressive BJP that has billed it as ‘semi finals’ which would signal the end of the BJD rule in Odisha in 2019.

The BJP had done well in the rural elections last year across the state and won the zilla parishad at Bijepur securing over 90,000 votes, a vote share that it failed to retain today. Significantly the rural poll performance of the BJP had prompted its president Amit Shah to launch Mission 120+ in Odisha and ‘mo booth sabse majboot’ programmed leading the ‘face’ of BJP in Odisha Dharmendra Pradhan to describe the Bijepur bypoll as a ‘semi final’ when people will signal the end of the BJD misrule and vote the BJP to power in 2019.

The seat was held by Subal Sahu of the Congress for three terms since 2004 and ironically his wife Rita Sahu was fielded by the BJD and the Congress was left with a humiliating 10,000 votes. The rudderless OPCC leadership could not even put forth a semblance of a campaign virtually leaving candidate Pranay Sahu to fend for himself.

Unconfirmed reports said that OPCC president Prasad Harichandan had sent his resignation to the AICC after the Bijepur debacle. CM and ruling BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s strategy of wooing Rita Sahu , widow of Subal Sahu and fielding her. His campaign appeal to sentiments and sympathy vote for Rita Sahu had worked. He had four months time to announce packages for Bijepur and even start work on a few at the ground level.

It may be recalled that many within the BJD had doubted the candidature of Rita Sahu. She cant even speak properly they had said. But the CM had read the situation much better than the rest. He was aware that people of Bijepur were dissatisfied with the government and had not voted for the BJD since 2004.

Patnaik silently planned his move of encashing on late Subal Sahu’s immense popularity and he succeeded. Rita came to me and requested to help her work for one year to sever and fulfil dreams of her late husband, I gave the ticket to her and I will stand by her to ensure Subal Sahu’s dreams are fulfilled, he said at his campaign meetings. In a way he won over the entire vote base of Subal Sahu and the Congress leaving the aggressive BJP and the disjointed Congress way behind.

The BJP with Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan roping in half a dozen central ministers and Odia cine stars tried at a high decibel , high profile campaign for rebel BJD Ashok Panigrahi who was made the candidate hoping that Panigrahi with about 20,000 BJD votes plus the 90,000 plus votes for the BJP in the zilla parishad polls will win the by-poll. The fierce campaign, violence – shoes hurled at the CM during a campaign meeting, a clash which left a BJD leaders driver dead and three BJD workers injured led to added sympathy in favour of the BJD.

CM thanked people of Bijepur for showering their blessings on the BJD. More importantly, he said people of Odisha are peace loving people and detest violence. He termed BJP’s 120 plus mission in Odisha as a ‘mad exaggeration’ and asserted that the BJD will return to power in 2019 with a healthy majority.

BJP leaders were quick to find excuses and said the Congress had sold out to the BJD. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who was in charge of the campaign and virtually the sole commander, said the unholy alliance between the BJD and Congress has been exposed.

He looked at the positives and said the BJP has established itself as the main opposition party in Odisha and has replaced the Congress which has been rendered irrelevant. We will work hard to win the 2019 general elections after analysing the Bijepur defeat, he added.