Bhubaneswar:Ā The ruling BJD in Odisha is all set to form government for a fifth time in a row following this general election.
Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen PatnaikĀ retained his home turf Hinjli for a fifth consecutive term. He trounced his BJP nominee Pitambar Acharya from the assembly seat by 60,160 votes andĀ steered his party to another victory in the state and established a lead of 56,000 votes in Bijepur constituency in west Odisha against Sanat Kumar Gartia of the saffron party.
BJD candidates won 89 seats and leading in 23 others out of the 146 assembly segments and this is for the first time Patnaik contested the assembly election from two seats.
The chief minister has been representing Hinjili in Ganjam district since 2000, when he decided to confine himself to state politics having served as a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government.
It is to be noted that in 2014 assembly elections, the BJD chief had bagged Hinjili, defeating his rival Sibaram Patra of the Congress by a margin of 76,586 votes. Patnaik had secured 73.14 per cent of the total votes polled.