Odisha bypolls: BJD retains Tirtol assembly seat

Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) retained the Tirtol assembly seat as party candidate Bijaya Shankar Das defeated his rival BJP candidate Rajkishore Behera by a huge margin of 41,703 votes.

Das got 88,310 votes while Behera secured 46,607 votes.

Congress candidate Himanshu Bhusan Mallick managed to get 28,778 votes.

In Balasore assembly seat, Swarup Kumar Das defeated BJP candidate Manas Kumar Dutta by a margin of 13,351 votes.

The by-elections in the two constituencies were necessitated due to the demise of BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta in Balasore and BJD legislator Bishnu Charan Das in Tirtol.