Pipili Bypoll: BJD’s Rudra Maharathy Victorious, Wins By Margin Of 20,916 Votes

After 26 rounds of counting, the result of the Pipili by-elections was announced Sunday (October 3) evening. BJD’s Rudra Pratap Maharathy won the election by a margin of 20916 votes from his nearest rival from BJP - Ashrit Patnaik.

As per the Election Commission of India (ECI), Rudra got 96392 votes while BJP’s Asrit Patnaik got 76056 votes and Congress’ Biswakesan Harichandan Mohapatra got 4261 votes. With this win, Rudra has retained his father late Pradeep Maharathy’s seat in the constituency.

The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting BJD MLA Pradeep Maharathy in October 2020. Subsequently, the ruling party pitched Maharathy's son Rudrapratap Maharathy for the by- election.

The ECI had had to postpone the polling thrice due to various reasons. Initially, the bypoll was scheduled for April 17 but it was rescheduled for May 16 after the death of Congress candidate Ajit Mangaraj due to Covid-19. Again, the by-election was deferred due to the second wave of the Covid pandemic.