Odisha assembly bypoll election result: BJP widens lead over BJD in Dhamnagar

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has already won three seats in the bypolls held in six states, is inching slowly towards another win in Odisha. Its candidate Suryabanshi Suraj has further widended the gap between him and his nearest rival from Abanti Das of ruling BJD in Dhamnagar bypoll in Odisha's Bhadrak district.

After 14 rounds of counting, Suryabanshi got 63,031 votes while the BJD candidates has polled 55,370 votes.

Congress nominee Baba Harekrushna Sethi has so far got just 2,751 votes.


The Dhamnagar seat fell vacant following the death of BJP MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi in September.

At least 68.98 per cent of the constituency's 2,38,417 voters had cast their votes in 252 booths of Dhamnagar on November 3.

Suraj, son of the deceased MLA, said, “I am fighting the election from Dhamnagar as a local who knows about the place and people here.”

Senior BJD leader and state minister Pramila Mallick exuded confidence that party candidate Abanti Das will win
the election by a wide margin.

Sporadic violence was reported in Dhamnagar on Friday and Saturday.

Three people, including a woman, were injured and a house was set on fire in the violence in Tihidi block, a police officer said.

A father-daughter duo was attacked with iron rods by alleged supporters of a political party in Talagopabindha village on Friday night. They have been admitted to the Bhadrak district headquarters hospital, the officer said.

In another incident, a person claimed that he was attacked by supporters of a rival party on Saturday morning.

A family at Kharapada gram panchayat alleged that their thatched house was set on fire "due to political reasons" by members of a party.

Odisha's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani, however, said on Saturday that he had no information on post-poll violence and would enquire about it from Bhadrak SP.