Ranendra wins Athgarh bypoll, gets back his crown

By Swagat Sahoo/www.indusvalleytimes.com

Bhubaneswar, March 21: The ruling BJD on Wednesday retained the Athgarh assembly seat by defeating the rival Congress in the by-election held following disqualification of the membership of Independent legislator Ramesh Rout.

By-poll to the seat was held on Sunday.

BJD’s Ranendra Pratap Swain defeated the Congress candidate Suresh Mohapatra by a margin of 47,390 votes. While Ranendra polled 87,604 votes, Suresh got 40,214 votes.

The BJP nominee Bikram Dash finished the poor third with just 2452 votes.

Soon after the result was announced, the victorious Ranendra took oath as the member of the Assembly in the evening and participated in the ongoing budget session of the House.

“I would like to thank the people of Athagarh, chief minister Naveen Patnaik all those senior leaders who campaigned for me. I would try to live up to the expectation of the people of Athagarh,” said the newly elected legislator Mr Swain.