The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday emerged victorious in the Nuapada Assembly seat by-poll by a thumping margin of over 83,000 votes, in what is being perceived as a seal of approval to the maiden governance of the saffron party since it rode to power in June 2024.
Though the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to make an official announcement of the poll result, district election authorities confirmed the result after the completion of 29 rounds of EVM counting.
While BJP candidate Jay Dholakia polled 1,23,869 valid votes, Congress’s Ghasiram Majhi bagged 40,121 votes closely followed by BJD candidate Snehangini Chhuria with 38,408 votes.
With the bypoll victory, BJP’s strength in the State Assembly rose to 79 elected members while the Opposition BJD has now 50 MLAs.
The BJP State Unit President Manmohan Samal described the victory as a mandate towards 17 months of governance of the Mohan Majhi-led government in the State.