State PCC & AICC responsible for Bijepur debacle: Niranjan Patnaik

KalingaTV News Network

Bhubaneswar: Moments after the state ruling BJD registered massive win in the Bijepur by-election, former Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) president Niranjan Patnaik held the state PCC and All India Congress Committee (AICC) responsible for party’s failure in the by-election, results of which were declared today.

“We welcome and respect the verdict of the Bijepur voters. The state PCC and AICC are responsible for the party’s poor performance in the by-election,” said Patnaik.

“Delayed candidate selection is also responsible,” added the senior Congress leader while explaining the reason behind party’s failure in the by-poll.

Congress had won the last three general elections from the Bijepur Assembly constituency in Bargarh district. However the grand old party stayed at a distant third position in the high voltage by-election.

Late Subal Sahu had won from the assembly constituency three times as Congress candidate. However, Congress candidate Pranay Sahu pocketed only 10,153 votes in the by-poll which was conducted following the untimely demise of Subal Sahu on August last year. He got 5.65% votes following which he lost the security deposit as he failed to poll 1/6th of the total votes. Wheres as Subal Sahu’s wife Rita Sahu, who was BJD’s candidate, won the election with 1,02,871 votes. Rita’s nearest contender Ashok Panigrahi of BJP was placed in the second spot with 60,938 votes.