BJP’s win in Odisha’s Dhamnagar is BJD’s first bypoll defeat since 2009

The Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Suryabanshi Suraj’s on Sunday won the bypoll to the Dhamnagar assembly segment in north Odisha’s Bhadrak district, defeating Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Abanti Das by an emphatic margin. Sunday’s defeat is the first in a bypoll for the ruling BJD since 2009 when the party severed its ties with BJP ahead of the assembly elections.

Suraj, son of late MLA Bishnu Charan Sethi, whose death in September necessitated the bypoll, polled 80,351 votes, over 9,800 more than the BJD’s Abanti Das who got 70,470 votes. The Congress, which has been on a perpetual decline, won just a little over 3,500 votes, less than half of what it won in the 2019 elections.

At 27 years, Suryabanshi Suraj is the youngest MLA of the current assembly.

Union education minister and senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan who fronted the BJP campaign in Dhamnagar said it was a victory of democracy. “It is a victory of the youth and women. The result reflects the mood of people and Odisha’s trust in the decisive and credible leadership of PM Modi,” said Pradhan as he thanked people for their overwhelming support.

Chief minister Naveen Patnaik who had fielded Abanti Das, a former member of a women self-help group (SHG) said he respected the verdict. “We have lost very few by-elections. MLA Bishnu C Sethi died recently and he was quite popular. BJP held the seat for a number of years. His son was given the ticket. It was expected that they would win,” he tweeted.

The defeat could influence how Patnaik, who handpicked Abanti Das, the chairperson of the panchayat Samiti, for the bypoll overruling discordant voices from within, allots seats for the 2024 general elections.

The BJD’s decision to name Das over former lawmaker Rajendra Das prompted the former MLA to contest the election as an independent candidate. Rajendra Das polled 8,153 votes and dented his party’s chances.

Like in previous bypolls, the chief minister appealed to women voters to back Abanti Das, and pledged to undertake speedy development of the constituency if she gets their vote. But it wasn’t enough.

Political commentator Rabi Das said Sunday’s defeat could persuade the chief minister to revisit his strategy of giving one-third of tickets to women in the assembly polls as he had done in 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“The defeat is clearly a setback for him. But Naveen Patnaik is a pragmatic politician and he would now probably look at winnability factor rather than gender while nominating candidates,” said Rabi Das.

As the party prepares for the assembly bypoll in Padampur next month and the assembly and Lok Sabha polls in 2024, the Dhamnagar result may have come as a reality check for party strategists who have been supportive of the plan to pit more women candidates to beat anti-incumbency.

The BJD’s victory in the assembly elections since 2009 is often attributed to the support that the party received from women voters. In his appeal to Dhamnagar voters, Patnaik had spoken of his plan to promote more women in electoral politics.

“Women are now empowered. Mission Shakti is their new identity. The good work of Women SHGs has made me very happy. So I want to see a ‘Maa’ as your MLA. You want too. Women are able to perform all the responsibilities beautifully. With your help, Odisha is now famous all over the country in the field of development. I fully believe that this trend will continue further with your support,” he said, in his virtual address to Dhamnagar voters.

In the panchayat elections in March this year, 70% of the 30 zilla parishad president posts won by the party were women. Besides, more than 50% of BJD’s women candidates elected as ward members, panchayat samiti members and panchayat samiti chairpersons or zilla parishad members were members of women self-help groups.

Officials said the credit disbursement to women SHGs under the state’s flagship programme of Mission Shakti has risen from ₹1,036 crore in 2016-17 to ₹4,190 crore in 2020-21. In the current fiscal, the figure is likely to reach ₹6,000 crore.

Mission Shakti department facilitates institutional finance to SHGs at 0% interest on loans up to ₹3 lakh. The state provides ₹5,000 crore of business to SHGs annually with the members handling sewage treatment plants, property tax, collecting power bills apart from dozens of other activities. Last year, the government decided to lease out its properties, including village ponds, to SHGs to take up livelihood activities.