Bhubaneswar: The BJD on Wednesday re-asserted its electoral supremacy winning the Bijepur Assembly bypoll, touted as the dress rehearsal for the next general elections.

Party candidate Rita Sahu, widow of former Congress MLA Subal Sahu defeated BJP's Ashok Panigrahi by 42,000 votes. The Congress, which had won the seat in 2014, was relegated to the third position. Its candidate Pranay Sahu even lost his deposit.

Though BJP leaders here sought to put up a brave face seeking solace in the fact that the party's votes in Bijepur had doubled compared to the 2014 Assembly elections when it had polled 30,000 votes, there was no denying the disappointment at the loss.

The defeat is bound to hurt the party as it would demoralise party cadres before the polls. The party was also hopeful of doing well as it had got around 90,000 votes in Bijepur in the last panchayat polls.

Union petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who led the BJP campaign from the front, said the lessons from Bijepur would stand the party in good stead in 2019.

"What is important is that we have got 60,000 votes this time," he said.

While Panigrahi described the outcome as the "victory of black money", state BJP chief Basant Panda said the party, irrespective of the verdict, would continue to work towards achieving the goal of winning 120 seats in next polls.

What seems to have worked against the BJP were the twin incidents of hurling shoe at Naveen while he was campaigning on February 20 and the attack on Subrat Singh, brother of minister Sushant Singh, and his three aides at Banabira three days later.

As the result came in on Wednesday, Naveen's tweet also hinted at the rejection of violence.

"Humbled by love & trust of the people of #Bijepur for giving @bjd_Odisha a massive victory. BJD lives in the hearts of the people of #Odisha. Our people are peace loving and have rejected the politics of hatred and violence," the chief minister tweeted.

The result comes as a big blow to the faction-ridden state Congress with speculation rife that Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan, whose resignation the dissidents were demanding, had offered to quit. Senior Congress leader Niranjan Patnaik said the party paid the price for the inordinate delay in candidate selection. "We all should own be held responsible for the debacle," he said.