Bhubaneswar: The dreams of a number of senior leaders and former legislators who shunned the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to join the saffron brigade seemed to have shattered Thursday as election results showed them their last minute decision was a not a fruitful attempt.
As per the latest trends of the Lok Sabha as well as the Assembly Election, till the time of filing the story, the fate of many such party deserters seemed to be going nowhere. Former Kendrapara MP Baijayant Panda who left the regional party to join the saffron brigade was one of the latest victims of the people’s mandate.
Despite his tall claims of people’s massive support in his constituency, people voted against Panda and favoured BJD’s Anubhav Mohanty. Almost throughout the day, Panda seemed trailing behind Anubhav who was chosen by the regional party to leave Rajya Sabha and contest against the beleaguered former BJD MP from Kendrapara, Baijayant Panda. Panda was earlier suspended from the party while later he left the party on his own, only to join the BJP later.
Similar fate was also meted out to the former Nabarangpur MP Balabhadra Majhi. Majhi, anticipating denial of ticket, moved to the BJP bandwagon which was seen as an aggressive force in the 2019 elections. However despite his last minute switch to the saffron brigade, Majhi too was seen being defeated as per the latest trends at the time of writing this report.
Similarly, former BJD leader and ex-minister Damodar Rout who jumped onto the saffron bandwagon few days back was also seen to be rejected by the people as he was also trailing in the Assembly elections from Balikuda-Erasama segment of the state assembly.
Similarly, sitting MLA from Salipur Prakash Behera who shifted his base from Congress to BJP, was also seen trailing on the counting day. Similar was the fate of BJD deserter Raghunath Mohanty who fought from Basta on a BJP ticket. The only face who was triumphant was K Narayan Rao who left BJD to join BJP and contested from Paralakhemundi Assembly segment.
