BJD retains Kandhamal

Odisha Channel Bureau Bhubaneswar, Oct 19: Biju Janata Dal headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won the by-election in Kandhamal Lok Sabha constituency in Odisha on Sunday.Bharatiya Janata Party secured the second position, while Congress remained in the third position. BJD’s Pratyusha Rajeswari Singh, widow of former BJD MP late Hemendra Chandra Singh, won the by-election defeating BJP’s Rudra Madhab Ray by a whopping 2,98,868 votes.Singh secured 4,77,529 votes, while Ray polled 1,78,661 votes, registering 11 per cent in his party’s vote share than in the last election. Congress nominee Abhimanyu Behera, a former MLA, was pushed to the third position securing 90,536 votes in the by-poll.The Chief Minister thanked the people of Kandhamal for making his party’s emerge victorious and also helping it increase in its vote share than the election.BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra, who led the party’s campaign in the sensitive constituency, said that despite the loss the party succeeded in increasing its vote share by 11 per cent compared to last polls.Abhimanyu Behera, who lost the election, alleged that both BJD and BJP huge amounts of money to influence the voters.