BJD's Barsha Singh Bariha polled 1,20,807 (58 per cent) votes, BJP candidate Pradeep Purohit managed 78,128 (37.51 per cent) votes, while Congress' Satya Bhusan Sahu finished a distant third with only 3,594 (1.73 per cent) votes.
"BJD's Barsha Singh Bariha won the Padampur by-election by a margin of 42,679 votes," said Bargarh district electoral officer and collector, Monisha Banerjee.
Speaking to media persons, Barsha said she will work to fulfill the dreams of her late father Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, whose death in October necessitated the by-poll, and redress the issues facing the local people.
Meanwhile, Purohit claimed that he was defeated in the bypoll as the ruling party was able to grab all the votes of the Congress.
On the other hand, Congress leader Jaydev Jena alleged that a huge amount of money was distributed by the ruling party to win the bypoll.
BJD candidate Barsha secured 37,508 more votes than what his late father Bijaya Ranjan had managed in the 2019 Assembly elections.
Likewise, Purohit, who fought the 2019 poll on a BJP ticket, also got little more votes this time. In 2019, Purohit had polled 77,565 votes.
On the other hand, it was a debacle for the Congress in the bypoll as party nominee Sahu's votes came down drastically. Sahu had bagged 32,787 votes in the last elections held in 2019.
It shows that the BJP was able to protect its votes, while the BJD gained from Congress' vote loss.
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