Politics

Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], June 3 (ANI): Biju Janta Dal (BJD) candidate and wife of former MLA Kishore Mohanty, Alaka Mohanty, won the by-election to the Brajarajnagar assembly constituency in Odisha on Friday.

Mohanty is the wife of former MLA Kishore Mohanty who died in December 2021 due to Cardiac arrest.

According to SK Lohani, the Chief Electoral Officer Mohanty Mohanty had registered her victory with a margin of 66,122 votes as she got a total of 93,953 votes in total.

"The Congress candidate Kishore Chandra Patel secured a second position with a total of 27,831 votes, while the Bharatiya Janata Party's Radharani Panda got 22,630 votes," Lohani said.

"My Congratulations to Alaka Mohanty, candidate of Biju Janta Dal for winning the by-election with a huge margin. I would like to thank the people of Brajarajnagar for their unwavering love and trust. My heartfelt thanks to all party workers for their dedication and hard work, This victory has further strengthened our commitment to serving the people of the State," said BJD president and state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Communist Party of India (CPI) had also fielded its candidate Ramesh Tripathi for the bypoll, while 10 independent candidates also contested for the seat vacant due to the BJD MLA Kishore Mohanty's death in December 2021 due to Cardiac arrest.

The former MLA (Kishore Mohanty) first became the MLA for Jharsuguda in 1990 by contesting elections from Janata Dal and later won the same seat with the ticket from BJD in the year 2000 as well as 2009.

The by-election for the Brajarajnagar MLA seat in the Jharsuguda district of Odisha were held on May 31, where as many as 2,14,878 electorates were slated to cast their votes in 279 polling booths.

Of these, 22 booths were new while 60 others were identified as sensitive. Webcasting was also done in 145 booths.

To ensure free and fair voting, as many as 27 platoons force and 100 police personnel were deployed at the polling booths.

As per Lohani, the counting of votes, which was held in 20 rounds, was started at 8 AM at the Jharsuguda Engineering College. (ANI)