Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD on Sunday continued its winning streak in Pipili with the party’s candidate, Rudra Pratap Maharathy, registering a resounding victory in the byelection to the assembly constituency in Puri district. He won by a margin of around 20,916 votes. BJP finished second, while Congress forfeited its deposit.
The BJD secured 53.60% votes compared to 50.66% votes in the 2019 assembly election despite party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik not hitting the campaign trail. On the other hand, some BJP heavyweights, including Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra had conducted roadshows in Pipili for their candidate, Ashrit Pattanayak.
BJD’s Rudra won by a bigger margin than his father, Pradeep Maharathy, had in the 2019 polls (15,787 votes). Pradeep’s death last year made the byelection necessary. It was an emotional moment for the junior Maharathy as the result was announced on a day that marked the first death anniversary of his father.
After the party’s victory, Naveen took to Twitter to thank the people of Pipili for supporting the BJD and also congratulated the workers and leaders. “BJD is your party and is always dedicated to your service,” the chief minister tweeted.
Rudra, a postgraduate in management, also expressed his gratitude to the people and appealed to them not to celebrate the win owuing to the pandemic.
Since the time counting begun earlier in the day, the BJD maintained a comfortable lead.
