BJD headed for landslide victory in Odisha

The ruling BJD was poised to register a landslide victory in Odisha to retain power for the fourth consecutive term as 39 of its candidates have already won and 80 others were ahead in their constituencies today.
The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD, which had won 103 seats in 2009 assembly polls, is all set to take a lion's share raising its tally to 119 in the 147-member assembly.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik won from his home turf Hinjili segment in Ganjam district defeating Sibaram Patra of Congress by 76586 votes.
Congress, which had 27 members in the last assembly, has so far won five seats while 11 of its candidates were leading in different constituencies.

Senior Congress leader Chiranjib Biswal defeated senior BJD leader and former minister Bishnu Das in Jagatsinghpur assembly segment, while Congress stalwart Narasingh Mishra was leading over A U Singhdeo of BJD in Balangir seat.
In a setback to the party, OPCC president Jaydev Jena was defeated in Anandpur assembly constituency. Jena lost to Mayadhar Jena of BJD by a margin of 22224 votes.

The Narendra Modi wave that swayed across the country appeared to have had marginal impact in Odisha as BJP nominees were leading in nine assembly constituencies. The party had six members in the outgoing assembly.
BJP state unit president K V Singhdeo, overcoming strong opposition from BJD's Prakruti Devi, was back on the track with a lead of over 74,000 votes in Patnagarh.

Though the ruling BJD was sweeping the polls, Finance minister Prasanna Acharya was trailing behind his Congress rival Subal Sahu in Bijepur and school and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda was behind his Congress rival Tara Prasad Bahinipati.
Also trailing was BJD leader and former minister A U Singhdeo (Balangir), while former speaker and BJD leader Kishore Mohanty was defeated by Naba Das of Congress in Jharsuguda seat.
The newly floated Samata Kranti Dal was leading in one seat, while independent candidates were ahead in two assembly segments.