Bhubaneswar, July 20: Despite the euphoria over the BJP's performance in the last panchayat elections in Odisha, the state unit president Basant Panda today suffered a major setback when his party lost elections to the zila parishad seat in his Nuapada Assembly constituency.

The BJD won the seat with a convincing margin.

What could be a matter of concern for the BJP is that the Congress emerged second relegating the BJP to the third position. In the zila parishad elections, the BJD's Ramnaresh Ahir was victorious fetching 14,941 votes. BJP candidate Phuleswar Bhoi had to be content with only 4,530 votes. The Congress secured more than 6,827 votes.

In the Nuapada constituency, there are 14 zila parishad zones. In the last polls, elections were held for 13 zones. The BJP failed to win a single zila parishad seat, while the BJD had won eight seats and the Congress snatched five seats.

Following the results, the state BJP president had come under severe criticism. Panda had said as he was busy in campaigning for the polls for his party candidates in the entire state and could not devote time to focus on his area. However, it was expected that this time Panda would bounce back as he had enough time to campaign for the party.

Conceding the defeat, Panda said: "The ruling party won the election by using money and muscle power. The entire administration machinery was used in the election."

On being asked how the Congress could secure second position pushing the BJP to the third place, the state BJP president said: "Even the Congress used the money and muscle power. I can prove it."

In the last election after the BJP won 297 zila parishad seats, it started an intensive campaign against the ruling BJD and also said it would soon come to power. Even its leaders, during the party's national executive meeting held here in April after the panchayat polls, had pledged to dethrone the BJD government.

Even the BJP leaders, including the party's national president Amit Shah, had rushed to chief minister Naveen Patnaik's home turf in Ganjam with the aim to strengthen its base there.

BJD spokesperson Samir Ranjan Dash said: "The BJP leaders have overestimated themselves. They should realise the ground realities. The people of the state are with the BJD and will be with them as long as Naveen Patnaik leads the state."