Bhubaneswar: BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik Friday exuded confidence that his party has done well in the second-phase polls held Thursday.
Speaking to reporters here, Naveen said, “We have done very well in the second-phase elections.” Earlier, the party had claimed that it will win four Lok Sabha and 27 MLA constituencies that went for polls in first phase.
Voting was conducted in five Lok Sabha seats – Bargarh, Sundergarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska and 35 Assembly constituencies in the second phase. At present, the BJD occupies four MPs and 23 MLAs seats in these constituencies, while the Congress has six MLAs. One Lok Sabha and four Assembly seats are with the BJP, in addition to one Independent and a CPM candidate, who had the Assembly elections in 2014.
Stating that the saffron brigade has done ‘exceptionally well’ in the phase II elections, BJP leader and Padampur MLA Pradeep Purohit claimed that his party will win all the five LS and 30 MLA seats where voting was held Thursday. “We will win all the five Lok Sabha seats. BJP candidates will also emerge victorious in 30 out of 35 MLAs segments where voting was held in the second phase,” Purohit claimed.
On the other hand, the Congress, which is a little behind in the race, hopes to win more than half of the seats.
Congress chief whip Taraprasad Bahinipati said, “No single party will get majority in this election. We will win more than half of the seats that went for elections in this phase.”
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