BJP Triumphs in Odisha: A Major Defeat for BJD

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Odisha MPs, discussing regional development. BJP won 20 out of 21 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, unseating BJD which had been in power since 1997. BJP also secured a majority in the assembly. Mohan Majhi is the new CM of Odisha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with all Odisha MPs in parliament on Monday to discuss regional issues and development plans. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) clinched 20 out of 21 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha election, marking a significant gain of 12 seats from their 2019 performance.

Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) failed to secure a single seat, a drastic fall from the 12 seats they had won in the previous 2019 elections. During the campaign, the BJP capitalized on Patnaik’s declining health and anti-incumbency sentiments, also leveraging V K Pandian’s outsider status to attract Odia voters.

The BJP highlighted the success of its double-engine government in other states to persuade voters to elect them in both Lok Sabha and assembly elections. The party succeeded in securing a comfortable majority in the state's assembly elections, winning 78 out of 147 seats.

Conversely, the BJD managed to capture only 51 seats, falling short of the 74-seat majority mark, while the Indian National Congress took 14 seats. In the Lok Sabha polls, the BJP secured 20 seats with the Congress winning the remaining one. This crushing defeat ended the BJD's 24-year control of Odisha, with BJP's Mohan Majhi being sworn in as the new Chief Minister on June 12.

The Biju Janata Dal had governed Odisha continuously since 1997 until the watershed election results in 2024. (ANI)