Rourkela: The poll results have brought cheers for all the political parties in Sundargarh district as all of them, including BJD, BJP and those in the INDIA bloc, took something back home and had reasons to be happy. The Sundargarh Parliamentary seat remained in the saffron kitty as BJP’s sitting Member of Parliament (MP) Jual Oram defeated his nearest rival, former Indian Hockey Team captain and president of Hockey India, BJD’s Dilip Tirkey.
In the beginning, it was expected to be an even fight with Dilip having some edge, but Jual, the old war horse of BJP, secured the seat quite comfortably. Jual was leading by a margin of over 50,000 votes with a few rounds remaining.
In Biramitrapur, where the battle was evenly poised for some time as initial counting suggested, the lead needle kept on changing sides. Finally, Rohit Joseph Tirkey of BJD defeated his nearest rival BJP’s sitting MLA Shankar Oram. The battle for Raghunathpalli was evenly balanced between BJD and BJP. Archana Rekha Behera, wife of sitting BJD MLA Subrat Tarai, lost to BJP’s Durga Tanty by a margin of 5,774.
In the fight for Talsara Assembly constituency, Bhimsen Bhoi, the sitting BJP MLA retained his seat by defeating Binaya Toppo of BJD by a margin of 15,673 votes. Talsara has remained a classic case for psephologists because, despite a good presence of tribal Christians, the seat has always elected a Hindu candidate. The INDIA bloc parties won two Assembly seats. Congress candidate Rajan Ekka defeated his nearest rival from BJP Narasingha Minz as BJD was in third place. Another INDIA bloc candidate Laxman Munda of CPM won consecutively for the third time from Bonai. He defeated his nearest rival Bhimsen Choudhury, a former MLA of BJD. At the end of 22nd round, Munda was leading by over 25000 votes.
In Sundargarh, Yogesh Singh defeated his nearest rival Kusum Tete of BJP in a close fight. Kusum was a surprise winner last time and this time she fought valiantly. However, she was trailing by over 8,000 votes with two more rounds remaining.
The most keenly watched and contested Rourkela Assembly constituency has been retained by former minister and sitting MLA Sarada Nayak. He defeated BJP heavyweight and former central minister Dilip Ray. This was a closely contested fight for both as it became evident during the counting of votes. At one point, luck was in favour of BJP, but soon it sided with BJD. Sarada got the edge during the last three rounds of counting. Finally, Sarada defeated Ray by a margin of 3,552 votes.
