Dhamnagar result today, parties keep fingers crossed

Bhubaneswar: Pollsters may have predicted a close contest between BJP and BJD in the Dhamnagar by-election held on Thursday, the contestants and party supporters are confident of winning the crucial seat.
Hours before the counting, both BJP and BJD candidates are confident of winning, but insiders in the two parties believe the fight is too close to call and the fate of candidates may hinge on a margin of less than 5000 votes.
BJP nominee Suraj Suryabanshi, who started his Saturday with puja at a Shiva temple on Saturday, said he is not worried about the outcome as he has feedback from voters he would eventually emerge victorious.
“I joined politics at a difficult time. Days after my father Bishnu Charan Sethi’s death necessitating a bypoll and its was a tough decision I took after consultation with my mother. Honestly, win or loss is not in my mind, though I am confident people have blessed the legacy of my father,” he said.
BJD’s Abanti Das too sounded confident that she would win. “People of Dhamnagar have decided to be on the fast track of development with chief minister Naveen Patnaik and voted for the BJD,” she said. In the last assembly election, BJP’s Bishnu Sethi had defeated BJD’s Rajendra Prasad Das with a margin of around 5500.
With Rajendra rebelling against BJD and contesting as an independent this time, BJP calculates that even if he had polled 10,000 votes, the BJP would win riding with the visible sympathy wave in support of Suraj. BJD estimates Rajendra may not secure beyond 5000 votes.
Since 2000, when Naveen Patnaik came to power for the first time in Odisha, Dhamnagar has voted twice each for BJD (2009, 2014) and BJP (2004 and 2019) and once for an independent candidate in 2000.