Zeenews, May 21, 2009
Bhubaneswar, May 21: Despite romping home in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Orissa trouncing rivals in most parts of state, the ruling BJD seemed to have faltered in most emerging industrial hubs barring Kalinga Nagar in Jajpur district.
The party paid a heavy price in western region of state and in Kalahandi where Vedanta units are coming up and water is being allowed to be drawn from Hirakud reservoir.
Naveen -- from novice to history-scripting politician
Naveen Patnaik, 20 others, take oath in Orissa Speaker of the now dissolved Orissa assembly Kishore Kumar Mohanty lost in industrially-developed Jharsugda to his Congeess rival Naba Kumar Das by over 22,000 votes.
"Mohanty paid for his association with industrial houses while I made it a point to remain with the affected people," Das said, adding villagers do not accept industries which affect their life and livelihood.
Congress candidate Bhakta Charan Das, who spearheaded anti-Vedanta campaign in tribal-dominated Kalahandi district, also won Kalahandi lok sabha seat by defeating BJD's Subhas Nayak by 1,54,037 votes.
Bhakta Das had lost sucessive polls earlier before heading campaign against mining and industry in Kalahandi.
Similarly BJD candidate and former minister Balabhadra Majhi, a pro-industry leader, lost in Lanjigarh constituency, where Vedanta had installed its alumina refinery.
In neghbouring Junagarh assembly segment, BJD candidate Bira Sipka again lost to Congress nominee Gobardhan Dash. Sipka was a sitting MLA and known pro-industry politician.
Bhawanipatna assembly segment, the district headquarters of Kalahandi, also went in favour of Congress.
Congress candidates similarly bagged two Lok Sabha seats of Baragarh and Sambalpur, the two places where farmers had been agitating against the Naveen Patnaik government for supply of water to industries from Hirakud reservoir.
While Congress candidate Sanjay Bhoi won from Baragarh, Amarnath Pradhan was elected to Lok Sabha from Sambalpur.
Besides, the Congress candidates won assembly seats in Baragarh, Rengali and Atabira while Sambalpur seat went in favour of the BJP candidate.
Other industrial areas where the BJD candidates lost poll were Brajrajnagar, Sundargarh, Rajgangpur and Titlagarh.
However, in a departure from this pattern, the ruling BJD candidate won the Paradip assembly segment which included Dhinkia area, the epicenter of anti-POSCO agitation. With the plant site under three different assembly constituencies, there was apparently little impact on BJD's prospect.
Though the BJD candidate could manage to win from Angul assembly segment by a margin of over 20,000 votes as well, its candidate again lost the polls at Talcher seat to an independent.
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