BHUBANESWAR: Congress state president Niranjan Patnaik described the twin defeats of the party in Balasore and Tirtol assembly bypolls as a big setback.
“The results in the two bypolls are a setback for us. We need to introspect on what went wrong and come out with a robust roadmap to revive the party from the grassroots. I thank all the supporters who have reposed their faith in the party. I promise we will come back stronger,” Niranjan tweeted.
As the counting ended, Congress performed poorer in the Balasore bypoll than it had in the 2019 elections. However, Congress’s performance slightly improved in the Tirtol byelection as against its 2019 show. The Congress fielded Mamata Kundu and Himanshu Bhusan Mallick as the candidates for Balasore and Tirtol byelections, respectively.
Kundu secured only 4,983 votes out of a total 1,62,339 valid votes polled in Balasore, recording a humiliating 3.07% votes. She lost her deposit. Any candidate who fails to secure more than one-sixth (16.6 %) of the total valid votes cast has to forfeit his or her deposit in both the Lok Sabha and the assembly polls.
“The BJD resorted to money and muscle power to win the election. We (Congress) have a weak organisational structure in Balasore,” Kundu told media persons.
The Congress had made Manas Ranjan Das Pattanaik its candidate for the Balasore assembly seat in 2019. Pattanaik had polled 19,704 votes (12.45%) out of the total 1,58,313 valid votes cast and was placed in the third position after BJP’s winning candidate Madan Mohan Dutta (74,815 votes) and BJD’s Jiban Pradip Dash (61,409 votes).
In the Tirtol bypoll, the party candidate Mallick bagged 28,778 votes (17.24%) out of 1,66,921 valid votes polled. In the 2019 polls at Tirtol assembly constituency, Congress candidate Debi Prasad Mallick had secured only 23,804 votes (13.73%) of the total 1,73,423 valid votes polled. The BJD’s Bishnu Charan Das had won the seat by bagging 93,967 votes. BJP candidate Ramakanta Bhoi had stood second with 53,581 votes.