Bhubaneswar, Nov 10 Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) won the bypolls to both Balasore and Tirtol Assembly constituencies on Tuesday.
BJD candidates defeated their nearest rivals from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), informed Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sushil Kumar Lohani.
BJD's Bijaya Shankar Das defeated BJP's Rajkishore Behera by a huge margin of 41,703 votes in Tirtol.
Das, son of late BJD MLA Bishnu Charan Das, garnered 88,310 votes while nearest rival Behera secured 46,607 votes.
Congress candidate Himanshu Bhusan Mallick was placed third with 28,778 votes.
Swarup Kumar Das defeated BJP candidate Manas Kumar Dutta by a vote margin of 13,351 votes to secure the Balasore seat.
Swarup Das secured 84,097 votes while Dutta got 70,746 votes. Congress candidate Mamata Kundu managed to secure only 4,983.
BJD President and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated his party's candidates for their victories in the bypolls.
In a tweet, Patnaik thanked BJD workers for reaching out to the people and winning their hearts.
State Congress President Niranjan Patnaik said the results in the bypolls are a setback for the party.
"The results in the two bypolls are a setback for us. We need to introspect as to what went wrong & come out with a robust road map to revive the party from the grass root. I thank all the supporters who have reposed their faith in the party. I promise we will come back stronger," he said in a tweet.
The by-elections were necessitated by the demise of sitting BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta in Balasore and BJD's Bishnu Charan Das in Tirtol.
( With inputs from IANS )
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