Winner of Dhamnagar bypoll, Suryabanshi Suraj urged Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to shoulder the responsibility of Dhamnagar constituency as promised during the campaign.
Speaking to OTV, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and son of late MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi said even after getting defeated in the byelection, CM Naveen should take the responsibility of Dhamnagar as he is the Chief Minister of Odisha and it is his duty to look after the State.
It’s pertinent to mention here that during campaign ahead of polling, Patnaik had addressed a rally virtually and promised to look after the constituency.
Speaking about the women in SHGs, Suraj said he will ensure women actually get financially independent unlike some other political parties which only use them politically. “We will put them on the highest echelon in society as they are synonymous with our mother,” Suraj said.
BJP candidate Suraj defeated his nearest BJD rival Abanti Das by 9,881 votes. While Suraj secured 80,351 votes, Das got 70,470 votes to clinch the Assembly Constituency seat.
Meanwhile, the BJD has termed BJP’s win as the sympathy for late Bishnu Charan Sethi. Veteran leader Debi Prasad Mishra said, “The result reflects people’s sympathy for Bishnu Sethi’s family after his death. The election was held so close to Sethi’s death, so the BJP rode on the sympathy votes to win.”
“We will anyway retrospect and brainstorm the reasons behind our defeat, as always,” Mishra added.
BJP’s Prithviraj Harichandan said, “Whenever people understand that corruption has actually gone overhead, they effect a change and that is what actually happened. This is the beginning of a revolution and the end of Biju Janata Dal is near.”
On the other hand, a crestfallen senior Congress leader, Narasingha Mishra said, “I am very sorry to say that we failed to secure not even half of the votes we got last elections. The party should identify the problems soon otherwise I fear, the Congress could lose its identity in the future.”
Suraj, a greenhorn in electoral politics, apparently got a portion of Congress votes too. The party’s nominee Baba Harekrushna Sethi got only 3,561 votes, a mere 2.18 per cent of the total votes polled. Its candidate Bidyadhar Jena had secured 7,303 three years back. However, both lost their deposits.
(Reported By Parthasarathi Nayak, OTV)