By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, June 4, 2024: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is all set to notch up a historic victory in the state assembly election dislodging the five time winner the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by current Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

What is worse for the outgoing party, BJD, Naveen lost to Laxman Bag of BJP from the Kantabanji seat. This is the first time Naveen Patnaik has suffered an electoral defeat. He has won every election he has contested since 1998. He has, however, won from the Hinjili legislative constituency defeating Sisir Kumar Mishra of the BJP.

Naveen won his first elections from Aska constituency when he made his foray into politics and became an MP from that constituency twice in 1998 and 1999. He has won six times from Hinjili, including in the 2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly Elections.

At the time of reporting BJP has secured 70 seats, ruling BJD has secured 46 seats and Congress has secured 14. As per the latest trends, the BJP is leading in 17 out of the 21 Lok Sabha seats in the state and 70 of the 147 Assembly seats, with one Assembly seat already won.

With these numbers, the BJP is nearing the majority mark in the Odisha Assembly polls. To secure a majority in the Legislative Assembly in the state, a party needs 74 seats. This is particularly significant as the BJP has never been in power in the state before.

Both Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were conducted simultaneously in Odisha over four phases from May 13 to June 1.

Odisha, with its 21 Lok Sabha seats, includes constituencies reserved for Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates. In the 2019 elections, the BJD, under Naveen Patnaik’s leadership, won 12 seats, while the BJP secured eight, and the Indian National Congress (INC) managed just one seat. In the 2019 Odisha Assembly elections, the BJD won 112 seats, while the BJP secured 23 seats. The Congress had won nine seats in the 2019 Assembly polls.

The BJD has been in power in Odisha since March 2000. Naveen Patnaik has served as the Chief Minister of the state for the fifth consecutive term. If the Patnaik-led BJD wins this election, then this will confirm his sixth term as CM.

The outcome has virtually ended Naveen’s dream of becoming the nation’s longest-serving chief minister, a record Sikkim’s former chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling.