The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday registered a comfortable victory in the Patkura election over the BJP’s Bijoy Mohapatra while the Congress suffered yet another rout in Odisha. The election has attracted considerable attention as Mohapatra is considered an influential figure in coastal Odisha politics. The election was also considered to be a personal contest between Chief Minister and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik and his long time rival, Mohapatra.
Mohapatra, a powerful minister in former CM Biju Patnaik’s government and one of the founding members of the BJD in the nineties, fell out with Naveen Patnaik. Mohapatra, along with another Biju era heavyweight politician Dilip Ray, subsequently joined the BJP.