The BJD’s record-breaking victory in the Bijepur bypolls reflects how far it is ahead of competition in Odisha
Siddhartha Tripathy
The Bijepur byelection last month turned out to be everything it was billed to be, and much more. It dispelled a myth as much as it sprang up a surprise.
There was never any doubt that it was going to be yet another prestige battle between the Biju Janata Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party. After all, the setting was Bargarh district of Western Odisha, a traditional saffron stronghold. And the stage was the Bijepur assembly constituency, where the bypoll became necessary only after five-time Chief Minister and BJD boss Naveen Patnaik vacated it in favour of his usual Hinjili constituency, not long after making a statement to the opposition by winning both in the April-May simultaneous polls.
The Congress, which had practically owned this constituency from 2004 to 2017 until the death of its popular local MLA Subal Sahu, was barely in contention, which was only a reflection of the party’s state of affairs at the state and national level.
However, all the three major parties campaigned hard ahead of the Bijepur bypoll scheduled on October 21, leaving no stone unturned to win over voters.
Many ministers and senior leaders from the BJD camped in the assembly constituency soon after the poll date was announced. The party’s campaign reached fever pitch during the October 17-18 period after the Chief Minister arrived aboard his customised campaign bus on a two-day visit and began canvassing for party candidate Rita Sahu (widow of Subal Sahu) at dozens of public gatherings.
Not to be left behind, the BJP also brought in many of its heavyweights – from Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan to state BJP president Basant Panda, to other senior leaders such as K.V. Singh Deo and Suresh Pujari – to rally for candidate Sanat Gartia, who had unsuccessfully contested against the BJD chief from the same seat a few months ago.
“Naveen Patnaik has betrayed the people of Bijepur. He also played with their emotions. People will give a befitting reply to the BJD on October 21,” said Panda.
The next day, Pradhan, in one of the many road shows he held, stated: “The local BJD leaders had invited the Chief Minister to contest from Bijepur constituency to ensure development in Odisha. But he vacated the seat after winning the election. The Bijepur people, who have been burdened with another election, will give a befitting reply on October 21.”
In another one, the Union Minister thundered: “The Chief Minister had promised inclusive development of the constituency. Where is development? The by-election will be between truth and untruth.”
In contrast, Naveen turned on his charm offensive with his “Aapana maney khushi ta? (Are you all happy?)” refrain and urged the people to vote for BJD and Rita Sahu for all-round development of the constituency. Soon after announcing Sahu’s candidature in late September, he had also reassured the locals that Bijepur would “continue to be a focus constituency” for his administration.
Meanwhile, Congress leaders, who were canvassing for candidate Dillip Kumar Panda, were busy selling the hackneyed notion that the BJP and BJD were hand in glove and hence should be shunned in favour of the grand old party. But at the same time, they were heard to be despairing in secret over the lack of resources to keep up with the mega campaigns of their better-positioned and better-organised rivals.
Unfortunately, nothing seemed to be working for Congress. Even its hand-in-glove theory was rejected by most political analysts who witnessed the verbal duel and intense competition between leaders of the BJP and BJD during the campaign period. The notion about a secret understanding between the two parties that had been circulating for a few months got a massive setback if not a death blow.
The fierce campaigns, however, certainly contributed to a high voter turnout of over 79% on October 21.
And three days later, when the results came out, along came the big surprise: It was not the BJD’s victory in the Bijepur election; it was the mind-boggling margin with which Sahu won it.
Securing 1,35,957 votes in comparison to the 37,967 votes bagged by BJP’s Gartia, Sahu won Bijepur by a margin of 97,990 votes – breaking the record of Biswa Bhusan Harichandan, who had won during the 2000 assembly elections with a margin of 94,555.
For Sahu, this was a significant improvement on her impressive result from the 2018 Bijepur bypolls (necessitated by her MLA husband’s untimely demise), in which she beat BJP’s Ashok Panigrahi by more than 42,000 votes.
But the comparison that grabbed the biggest eyeballs was the one between Sahu and her leader. She won by almost 41,000 more votes than the victory margin of the BJD supremo himself at the constituency a few months earlier. Naveen had won 1,10,604 votes in the assembly elections this year, beating Gartia (who had managed 53,482) by 57,122 votes.
While the higher voter turnout this time certainly played a factor, but Sahu’s victory figure was incredible as much as it was impressive, baffling many political analysts in the state and beyond.
But her party was only in the mood for celebrating. While Naveen called up and congratulated Sahu for “her historic victory, breaking all records in Odisha’s electoral history”, BJD general secretary Bijoy Nayak declared that Sahu’s victory margin was not only the highest in the history of all assembly elections held in the state, it was also a national record.
After all, with her victory in Bijepur, BJD’s strength in the 147-member state assembly went up to 113.
“I am very happy that the people blessed me with such huge numbers. I would like to thank the people and the Chief Minister for having faith in me,” an elated Sahu told the media.
However, many political experts are noting now that Naveen’s reassuring promises to Bijepur during his comprehensive campaign, combined with his increasing popularity for his pro-people governance, was the driving force behind the BJD’s thumping victory in Bijepur. That is neither a myth nor a surprise.
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