Odisha chief minister Mohan Charan Majhi has passed the Nuapada bypoll test with flying colours, with BJP candidate Jay Dholakia winning the seat by a margin of 83,748 votes.
The BJD, which had won the seat in 2024, was placed third. This is the first time it has trailed the Congress in an election in the state.
Dholakia secured 1,23,869 votes, defeating the Congress’s Ghasiram Majhi, who got 40,121 votes. BJD candidate Snehnagini Chhuria secured 38,408 votes.
The results have reenergised the BJP in the state and forced the BJD to introspect. The debacle is expected to dent the popularity of BJD chief and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik.
The constituency was supposed to witness a keen contest, but the BJP proved itself tactically superior to both its rivals — the BJD and the Congress. The party, which had started preparing for the bypoll from the day the seat fell vacant, succeeded in luring away former BJD MLA Rajendra Dholakia’s son Jay Dholakia and fielding him as its candidate.
Naveen Patnaik
The state BJP had left no stone unturned to win the bypoll whose result was directly linked to Majhi’s political future. The BJP leaders camped at Nuapada for days and ensured that Naveen’s campaign could not sway the voters. The BJP also successfully projected the BJD as a crisis-ridden party with an ailing chief. Viral videos showing Naveen walking unsteadily and supported by aides appeared to have convinced people that the former chief minister was no longer in a position of control.
The BJP held a huge road show just ahead of Naveen’s visit to Nuapada, and Majhi hit the road a day after Naveen left the constituency. The BJP weaned away the BJD’s traditional women voter bank through its Subhadra scheme, which provides financial assistance to women from the economically weaker sections, and projected Chhuria as an outsider who could never understand Nuapada’s problems.
The personal vote bank that the Dholakia family had built over the years and the sympathy factor for Jay Dholakia after his father’s death also helped the BJP.
Dholakia’s poaching by the BJP buttressed the perception that Naveen was losing control over his party. The BJP was aided by the fact that its Nuapada campaign was practically launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Sambalpur visit in September.
Dholakia held a huge victory rally in the constituency.
For the Congress, the bypoll was a test of its resilience, and a win could have signalled its comeback in the state.
The mood was jubilant at the BJP party office, where Majhi and other BJP leaders celebrated the bypoll win.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan was the first to congratulate Majhi and state BJP president Manmohan Samal for the victory.
“Democracy has won in Nuapada. I hope that our double-engine government will meet the hopes and aspirations of the people and work towards ensuring the development of Nuapada,” Pradhan said.
Naveen expressed his gratitude to every leader, worker and supporter of the BJD “who stood united, worked tirelessly and gave their all for the BJD in the Nuapada by-election”.
He also congratulated the BJP candidate on his victory.
“I sincerely hope he will honour this mandate by bringing meaningful development to Nuapada. Elections come and go, but our values and our respect for people’s faith must always remain. It’s the responsibility of our institutions to uphold our democratic right to free and fair elections. The BJD has lived through many highs and lows, yet our resolve to fight for the people has
remained unbreakable, and it will continue to remain so,” he said.