BJD’s Rita Sahu wins with record margin in Bijepur by-poll

Surjit Kumar Dhal, Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) swept the by-poll in Bijepur Assembly Constituency in Bargarh district as its candidate Rita Sahu won with a record margin of 97,994 at the end of 21 rounds.

With this win, Rita has broken the record of Soumya Ranjan Pattnaik who had won by a margin of 81,430 from Khandapada Assembly Constituency.

While Rita polled 1,35,957 votes,  BJP candidate Sanat Gadtia got 37,967 votes, Dilip Panda of Congress was placed third with only 5,873 votes in the by-poll.

Soon after the announcement of the results, Chief Minister Naveen Pattanaik congratulated Rita Sahu for her massive win ever in the electoral history of Odisha. Worth mentioning here that CM Naveen had contested in Bijepur in last assembly elections and won with a margin of 57,122 votes.

It was the third polling in two years to elect an MLA from Bijepur. The segment had witnessed a by-poll in February 2018 necessitated due to death of then sitting MLA Subal Sahu in August 2017 followed by the assembly election in April this year.

The by-election to the politically-sensitive seat in Bargarh district was necessitated after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, who had won from two seats in the Assembly polls held in April, resigned from Bijepur and retained his Hinjili seat in Ganjam district.