A jubilant BJD candidate with his supporters after the civic poll results released in Kendrapara. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 16: The BJD today swept the Kendrapara municipal polls bagging 13 of the 21 seats at stake, riding the crest of chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s popularity.

The victory comes ahead of the crucial Assembly by-polls in Umerkote, where voting will take place on November 30.

While the outcome has reaffirmed Naveen’s value as the ruling party’s election mascot, it has dealt a crippling blow to the Congress’ revival hopes. The main Opposition party two short of its tally in 2006 municipal elections in Kendrapara.

The results also deflated the ego of the Nationalist Congress Party, which, notwithstanding its electoral alliance with the BJD at the state level, had tied up with the Congress for these elections, but could manage one seat. The BJP, too, won a single seat despite the fact that one of its most charismatic leaders, Bijay Mohapatra, hails from Kendrapara.

While Naveen, who kept away from the campaign in Kendrapara thanked the electorate for reposing their faith in his party, the Congress was quick to raise accusing fingers at him. State Congress president Niranjan Patnaik, for whom it was the first election after taking charge of the party, said it was hard to win in the face of misuse of official power and money by the BJD.

The loss was huge for the Congress and the BJP going by their tallies in the last municipal polls held in Kendrapara in 2006. While the BJP, which was then ruling the state in alliance with the BJD, had won nine seats in those elections, the Congress had bagged seven. The BJD had won four seats.

However, with Bed Prakash Agrawal, the most towering BJP leader of Kendrapara in those days, later joining the BJD, the BJP leaders, who had won those elections, also merged with the ruling party. The BJP had expected to do better this time by targeting Naveen on the corruption issue.

The Congress, however, appears even more crestfallen as it had raised the pitch and profile of the campaign by deploying stalwarts, including Union minister Srikant Jena and the Pradesh Congress Committee chief himself. It had also converted the election into a referendum on the image and performance of the chief minister. The results, however, have proved beyond doubt that Naveen’s image remains Teflon-coated despite a series of scandals having rocked his government in the last two years. His performance, too, has won the approval of the electorate who obviously find him better compared to any Congress or BJP leader of the state.