Bolangir Lok Sabha Election Results:
BJP candidate Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo wins with a compact 19516 vote margin against BJD's Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo. The BJD had earlier in 2014 won this seat with a substantial 1.8 lakh vote margin.
Bolangir Lok Sabha constituency profile:
Bolangir is all set for a royal battle, one more time. Sitting MP Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo is pitted against his sister-in-law Sangeeta Singh Deo. In 2009 and 2014 too, Sangeeta contested unsuccessfully losing to Kalikesh. Before that, she had won the seat in 1998, 1999 and 2004 when BJD and BJP were together.
However, BJP has steadily increased its clout in this area winning a majority of zilla panchayats in the last Panchayat poll. This is a seat BJP is confident of flipping with anti-incumbency setting in against BJD. While in many places, BJD has changed candidates to counter it, in Bolangir it stuck to its winning formula of fielding royal candidate. History of Bolangir shows that barring few exceptions, it has been a member of the local royal family who has become MP from this seat.
Congress candidate young Samarendra Misra will hope to buck that trend. Son of leader of opposition in the Odisha Assembly, Samarandra though has his task cut out against two formidable opponents.
In the past, right wing Swantra Party under RR Singh Deo had won twice from this seat. Congress has won the seat four times, the latest being in 1996. Since then, it has drawn blank. While BJD is looking to get vote showcasing development work done by them, opposition is trying to highlight agrarian distress in the region.
The assembly segments under Bolangir are Kantabanji, Titlagarh, Balangir, Patnagarh, Loisingha, Sonepur, Birmaharajpur. Bolangir goes to polls on 18th April.
