Bhubaneswar, Dec 8 : Odisha’s ruling BJD retained the Padampur Assembly seat in a by-poll with its candidate Barsha Singh Bariha triumphing over her nearest BJP rival Pradeep Purohit in the vote count on Thursday.
State Chief Electoral Officer Sushil Lohani said Bariha polled 120807 votes while Purohit got 78,128 votes. Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu, a three-time MLA from the constituency, polled only 3594 votes and lost his deposit.
Barsha is the daughter of Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha, whose demise created the vacancy.
Congress candidate Satya Bhusan Sahu questioned the ‘fairness” in the by-election, and alleged “money and muscle power” played a major role in deciding the outcome.
The BJP on the other hand claimed that the congress votes went in favour of the ruling BJD candidate
Altogether ten candidates including five Independents were in the fray and barring the BJD and the BJP nomineess, the eight other contestants forfeited their deposits.
The ruling BJD had taken the by-election as a prestige issue after the Dhamnagar by-election when the BJP defeated its candidate.
In the Padampur assembly by-election, BJD candidate Bariha set a record by winning the seat with a huge margin of 42,679 votes. Her father Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha had won the seat in the 2019 Assemble election by a margin of only 5734 votes over his nearest rival Pradeep Purohit of BJP.
Interestingly, Congress candidate Satya Bhauan Sahu who got 32,787 votes in the 2019 Assembly election from Padampur, could manage only 3594 votes and forfeited his deposits.
The BJP, however, managed to keep its vote share intact both in the 2019 Assembly election and the 2022 by-election.
BJP candidate Purohit who was defeated in the 2019 Assembly election had then polled 77,565 votes and in the latest by-election, he got 78,128 votes.