Speaking to media persons, Mishra, the Leader of Opposition in the Odisha Legislative Assembly, said, “The ruling BJD has won the by-poll using huge amounts of money, muscle power and state machinery.”
“Naveen Babu has raised the election expenditure to such a height that a common man cannot fight an election in the State,” he claimed.
The saffron leader further said that the Padampur bypoll result will not have any impact on the 2024 election.
Mishra also rejected BJD president Naveen Patnaik’s "anti-women" jibe at the saffron party and said the Chief Minister’s statement was not based on facts, but an attempt to garner sympathy of women ahead of 2024 general elections.
On Thursday, Patnaik had said that he was deeply pained by BJP leaders' personal and disrespectful attacks on party candidate Barsha Singh Bariha. So, he decided to stand by her as a father figure and personally campaign at Padampur.
"No personal attack was made on the BJD candidate. Patnaik has the old habit of making such statements to gain empathy of the people," Mishra said.
He further said that had BJP been anti-women, Prime Minister Narendra Modi would have not been able to establish himself as "Pradhan Sevak" of the country. The BJP would not have won in Dhamnagar bypoll, he added.
Notably, the BJD has retained the Padampur Assembly seat after its candidate Barsha Singh Bariha defeated BJP’s Pradip Purohit by over 42,000 votes.
