Bhubaneswar: The saffron storm, which swept parts of neighbouring West Bengal, also cut a swathe through Odisha, with the BJP bagging eight of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
The ruling BJD's tally nose-dived from 20 to 12, while the Congress managed to bag just one seat.
Propelled by the Modi wave, the vote share of the saffron party grew from 21.88 per cent in 2014 to 38.4 per cent, while that of BJD dropped to 42.8 per cent from 44.77 per cent. For the first time since its inception, the BJD saw its Lok Sabha tally slide down.
The party had won nine seats in 12th Lok Sabha in 1998, which rose to 10 in 1999 and 11 in 2004.
After the party snapped ties with the BJP, ahead of 2009 elections, the regional party won 14 seats in the polls, while the saffron party had to eat a humble pie.
In 2014, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) put up a spectacular show, grabbing a lion's share of 20 Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP could get just one constituency.
Prominent among the BJP winners this time are Union minister Jual Oram, BJP national secretary Suresh Pujari, BJP state president Basant Panda, firebrand leader Pratap Sarangi and former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi.
Amid joyous scenes in the BJP camp, the defeat of two high-profile candidates, however, put the party in a spot.
While BJP national vice-president Baijayant Panda lost the Kendrapara seat to BJD candidate and Rajya Sabha MP Anubhav Mohanty, national spokesperson of the saffron party Sambit Patra failed to wrest the Puri Lok Sabha seat from Pinaki Mishra of the BJD.
Panda, who was elected from Kendrapara in 2014 polls as a BJD candidate, had resigned from the regional party and the Lok Sabha membership last year, following differences with the senior leaders.
Union minister Jual Oram saved the day for the saffron party by retaining the Sundargarh (ST) seat. He defeated his nearest rival and BJD nominee Sunita Biswal by a comfortable margin of 2,23,065 votes.
The BJD has performed well in Maoist-hit Kandhamal.
Achyutyanana Samant of the BJD trounced BJP's Mahameghabahan Aira Kharabela Swain in the seat by a comfortable margin 149216 votes.
The other prominent BJD winner is Bhartruhari Mahtab. He retained the Cuttack Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP's
Prakash Mishra, former director general of CRPF and ex-DGP of Odisha, by a margin of 1,21,201 votes.
Perhaps for the first time, Odisha is sending seven women to the Lok Sabha, five from the BJD and two from the saffron party.
In the prestigious Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency, former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi of the BJP defeated BJD nominee Arup Mohan Patnaik, retired IPS officer and former Mumbai police commissioner, by a margin of 23,829 votes.
Sangeeta Kumar Singhdeo is the other BJP woman candidate to have bagged a seat.
Singhdeo defeated his brother-in-law Kalikesh Narayan Singhdeo of the BJD by 19516 votes.
Five of the seven women candidates that the BJD had fielded for the election have emerged victorious.
BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's strategic decision to nominate a woman self-help group leader seemed to have paid rich dividends to his party.
Pramila Bisoyi, who is in her seventies, won the Aska seat by a margin 2,04,707 votes in her maiden poll battle against BJP's Anita Subhadarshini.
The other women candidates of the BJD who pocketed Lok Sabha seats are Rajasjree Mallick (Jagatsinghpur), Chandrani Murmu (Keonjhar), Sarmistha Sethi (Jajpur) and Manjulata Mandal (Bhadrak).
The Congress took solace in its single victory in tribal-dominated Koraput constituency.
Saptagiri Ulaka of the party won from Koraput (ST) Lok Sabha constituency, beating BJD's Kausalya Hikaka by 3,613 votes.
