In Bhubaneswar on Sunday, Odisha Congress chief Bhakta Charan Das announced the party will dig into why it lost the Nuapada by‑polls and will punish anyone who helped the opposition run a dirty campaign.
“I want the party to look inside itself and find the real reasons we didn’t win,” Das told reporters. “We will see who behaved wrongly in the polls and take firm action.”
The leader also slammed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for pouring out big money and bringing in high‑profile politicians from Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh, including both states’ chief ministers, to win the seat.
Despite that spending, Congress still pulled in over 40,000 votes in Nuapada, a vote of gratitude from the voters, Das said. “We are proud that people gave us that support—even though we didn’t win,” he added.
BJP took the seat from the Biju Janata Dal (BJD). BJP candidate Jay Dholakia got 123,869 votes, easily beating Congress’s Ghasiram Majhi by 83,748 votes. BJD’s Snehangini Chhuria came third with 38,408 votes.
With the win, BJP has 79 seats in the Odisha Assembly, bringing its total to 147. The Nuapada seat had been empty after the death of four‑time MLA Rajendra Dholakia, the father of newly elected BJP MLA Jay Dholakia, in September.
Meanwhile, BJP Law Minister Prithviraj Harichandan, when asked about the loss, warned that parties often try to hide their mistakes after a defeat. “It’s better for the BJD and Congress to admit they were rejected by the people,” he said.
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