On Friday, Alaska Mohanty, a Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate and the wife of former MLA Kishore Mohanty, won the by-election to the Brajarajnagar assembly seat in Odisha.
Ms. Mohanty is the widow of former MLA Kishore Mohanty, who died of a cardiac attack in December 2021.
According to SK Lohani, Chief Electoral Officer, Ms. Mohanty won by a margin of 66,122 votes out of 93,953 votes.
“The Congress candidate Kishore Chandra Patel came in second with 27,831 votes, while Radharani Panda of the Bharatiya Janata Party received 22,630 votes,” Mr. Lohani added.
“My heartiest congratulations to Alaka Mohanty, the Biju Janta Dal candidate who won the by-election by a large majority. I’d want to express my gratitude to the people of Brajarajnagar for their unfailing love and support.
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My sincere appreciation to all party members for their devotion and hard work. This win has reaffirmed our commitment to serving the state’s people, “Naveen Patnaik, the BJD’s president and the state’s chief minister stated as much.
The Communist Party of India (CPI) ran Ramesh Tripathi for the bypoll. At the same time, ten independent candidates also ran for the seat left vacant by BJD MLA Kishore Mohanty’s death from cardiac arrest in December 2021.
Kishore Mohanty, the former MLA, initially became MLA for Jharsuguda in 1990 by fighting elections on the Janata Dal ticket and then won the same seat on the BJD ticket in 2000 and 2009.
On May 31, a by-election for the Brajarajnagar MLA seat in Odisha’s Jharsuguda district was conducted, with 2,14,878 voters expected to cast their ballots in 279 polling stations.
There were 22 new booths, while 60 others were deemed critical. In addition, webcasting was done in 145 booths.
At the polling stations, 27 platoons of the army and 100 police officers were stationed to guarantee free and fair voting.
According to Lohani, the vote counting took place in 20 rounds, beginning at 8 a.m. at the Jharsuguda Engineering College.
