Balasore (Odisha): BJP candidate Pratap Chandra Sarangi has won by over 1 lakh votes in Balasore Lok Sabha seat, according to the latest data by Election Commission of India. The saffron party candidate was contesting against Congress candidate Divyanshu Budhiraja. The BJP won 14 Assembly seats in Odisha on Tuesday and was leading in 66 other constituencies, according to the Election Commission of India. The Biju Janata Dal won seven seats and was leading in 42 constituencies out of the 147 Assembly seats, it said.
Counting of votes began for 147 assembly constituencies and 21 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha on Tuesday morning, officials said. A seat where voters tend to bring change every election, Congress had fielded four-time MP Srikant Jena in a bid to wrest the seat from the BJP. BJD, on the other hand has played the woman card by fielding former state BJP Vice President Lekhasri Samantasinghar, who quit the saffron party recently.
The sitting MPs who were denied BJP tickets in the Lok Sabha election 2024 in Odisha are Suresh Pujari (Bargarh), Union Minister Bisheswar Tudu (Mayrbhanj), Nitish Gang Deb (Sambalpur) and Basant Panda (Kalahandi). The party has nominated Pradeep Purohit in place of Pujari while Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan replaced Nitish Gang Deb in Sambalpur.
The sitting MPs who have been retained are Jual Oram (Sundergarh), Pratap Chandra Sarangi (Balasore), Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo (Bolangir) and Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar).
2024 Polling: The Balasore Lok Sabha seat polls of Odisha took place in the seventh and last phase of Lok Sabha election 2024 on June 1.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, sitting BJP MP Pratap Chandra Sarangi won the seat against his nearest rival, BJD candidate Rabindra Kumar Jena by a margin of 12, 956 votes.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, BJD candidate Rabindra Kumar Jena won from the Balasore Lok Sabha seat against his nearest rival Pratap Chandra Sarangi of the BJP. Congress candidate Srikant Jena ended up being at the third spot.
