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ELECTIONS '96

BJD-BJP combine wins 7 seats in Orissa

The newly formed Biju Janata Dal-BJP alliance has so far won seven seats in Orissa.

The BJD won the Dhenkanal, Aska, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Phulbani seats. Except the Aska seat, all the four seats were held by the Congress. The BJP, which has been fighting all the Lok Sabha elections since 1989 but could not open its account, has captured Keonjhar and Bolangir seats.

BJD president and son of late chief minister Biju Patnaik, Navin Patnaik retained his Aska Lok Sabha seat, defeating his nearest Congress rival Chandra Sekhar Sahoo by a margin over 75,000 votes. Patnaik won the seat with a margin of over 68,000 during the May 1997 byelection.

Former Union minister K P Singh Deo missed his hat-trick when he was defeated by Tathagat Satpathy of the BJD by a margin of 32,605 votes. Singh Deo had won the seat four times in the past.

Satpathy, son of former chief minister Nandini Satpathy, is the editor of language daily Dharitree and this would be his first victory in an LS election. Earlier he had held the Dhenkanal assembly seat.

Bhartruhari Mahatab, son of another former chief minister Harekrushna Mahatab, won the prestigious Cuttack LS seat defeating his nearest Congress rival and former Janata Dal minister Syed Mustafiz Ahmed. Mahatab unsuccessfully contested the byelection in April last year after Biju Patnaik vacated the Cuttack seat.

Like Satpathy, Mahatab is the editor of a language daily, Prajatantra, published from Cuttack.

UNI

Elections '98

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