Will support neither UPA nor NDA at Delhi.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Orissa has scored a resounding success in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the state. The party has scored an unprecedented hat-trick win in the assembly polls, while capturing a big majority of all Lok Sabha seats.
In the assembly elections, the party is on its way to a two-thirds majority. And, of the nine Lok Sabha results declared (the state total is 21), it is the winner in seven; it has clear leads in another seven, while another seat has gone to its new ally, the CPI. The Congress had won only one LS seat (Nawarangpur) till the results last came in.
A visibly happy BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik told reporters at his residence here that his party would support neither the Congress-led UPA, nor the BJP-led NDA, at the Centre.
“I feel absolutely humbled by the tremendous generosity shown by the poeple of Orissa. My party and I will work with dedication and serve the people of Orissa,” he said.
The party had contested the 2004 assembly and Lok Sabha elections in an aliance with the BJP; it had won 61 assembly seats and 11 Lok Sabha seats that time. This time, Patnaik abruptly snapped the BJP alliance on the eve of elections and, of the 21 Lok Sabha seats, left one each to the NCP, CPI and CPM. Of the 145 assembly seats declared for the 147-member assembly till night, the party had won 103, leaving the Congress with 26. The BJP got only six. Independents and others got 10 seats.
Patnaik himself has a thumping win against his nearest rival Raghab Parida of the Congress by 60,786 votes in his Hinjili assembly constituency. While Patnaik polled 72,402 votes, his rival secured only 11,616 votes.
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The breaking of the 11-year alliance between BJP and BJD led many observers to predict a tight situation for the BJD because of a split in the anti-Congress votes. However, the BJD, riding on the clean image of Naveen and effective implementation of the Rs 2 per kg rice scheme, proved the forecast of most of the exit polls wrong.
Important among the BJD winners are Pramilla Mallick from Binjharpur, Padmanabh Behera from Biramaharajpur, A U Singhdeo from Bolangir, Arabinda Dhali from Jayadeb, Prasanna Acharya from Rairakhol, excise and tourism minister Debi Prasad Misra from Badamba.
However, speaker of the state assembly Kishore Mohanty lost the Jharsuguda seat to Naba Das of the Congress.
Former minister Jayanarayan Mishra (BJP) won from Sambalpur assembly constituency and BJD candidate School and mass education minister Sanjib Sahu (BJD) won from Athamallick.
On the other hand, BJP candidate from Bhubaneswar (Central) and former minister Biswabhusan Harichandan lost the battle against BJD's Bijay Mohanty. BJP stalwart and contestant for the Bhandaripokhari assembly seat Manmohan Samal was defeated by Prafulla Samal of BJD.
In the Lok Sabha elections, Braja Kishore Tripathy (BJP), contesting from Puri, lost to Pinaki Misra (BJD). Film actor-turned politician Sidhanta Mohapatra, contesting for the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat on a BJD ticket defeating Union minister of state for rural development, Chandra Sekhar Sahoo.