india

Updated: Jul 24, 2019 14:28 IST

Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s longtime opponent Bijoy Mohapatra lost the Patkura assembly constituency election to the ruling BJD’s Savitri Agarwalla by more than 17,600 votes on Wednesday.

The Patkura verdict brings an end to the two-decade-long battle between Naveen Patnaik and 69-year-old Mohapatra, his principal bête noire.

Mohapatra, a former minister and senior BJP leader, lost by 17,655 votes. Agarwalla secured 95,162 votes and Mohapatra got 77,507. Congress candidate Jayant Mohanty lost his security deposit as he polled a little more than 2,000 votes. The win in Patkura took BJD’s tally in the 147-member Odisha Assembly to 113.

The election for the Patkura assembly constituency in Kendrapara district was held after the Biju Janata Dal’s candidate and former minister Bed Prakash Agarwalla died on April 20, days before the constituency went to polls.

The BJD then chose his widow Savitri Agarwalla as the party’s candidate. Though polls were to be held on May 19, they were deferred after Cyclone Fani swept through several parts of coastal Odisha.

“Had he made it to the assembly, Mohapatra would have made life difficult for the government. But after his loss, Mohapatra may not have any political currency in the next election,” said political analyst Rabi Das.

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A long-time aide of former Odisha chief minister Biju Patnaik, Mohapatra was the virtual No 2 in his cabinet between 1990 and 1995. A prime mover behind the formation of the BJD in 1997, Mahapatra was made the chairperson of the party’s all-important political affairs committee.

In the assembly polls in 2000, Mohapatra filed his nomination from the Patkura assembly constituency. The BJD first swept to power after that election. But Patnaik withdrew Mohapatra’s candidature at the last moment leaving him no time to file his papers even as an Independent candidate.

Since then three assembly elections have gone by but Patnaik’s manoeuvres have ensured that Mohapatra remained in the political wilderness even as he continued to be the chief minister’s most trenchant critic.

In October 2000, Mohapatra formed a regional party, Odisha Gana Parishad, which he merged with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) ahead of 2009 polls. Mohapatra was left dismayed when the NCP supported the BJD in the polls that year. He joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2010 but was not received well in the party with the RSS deeply distrustful of him.

As Mohapatra made a fervent and perhaps his last attempt to enter the Odisha assembly after a gap of 19 years, the battle turned into one of prestige for Patnaik, who has always remained distrustful of Mohapatra’s political acumen.

A nervous chief minister marshalled all his resources and personally campaigned in Patkura to ensure Mohapatra’s defeat.

Despite the Budget session in the assembly, several BJD ministers left their work and campaigned in Patkura drawing widespread criticism that the chief minister was more focussed on winning the elections rather than governing the state. There were several allegations that the BJD had distributed money during the polls.

However, for several top BJP leaders, the defeat of Mohapatra would mean the new-found bonhomie between the BJD and BJP is not disturbed.

Last month, the BJD had announced its support to the BJP’s candidate Ashwini Vaishnaw’s candidature for the Rajya Sabha polls triggering speculations of a growing friendship between the political rivals.