2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly election

For Lok Sabha elections, see 2024 Indian general election in Odisha.
2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly election
← 2019 13 May - 1 June 2024 2029 →
All 147 seats in the Odisha Legislative Assembly
74 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout74.51% (Increase1.31%)
  Majority party Minority party Third party
 
Mohan Charan Majhi (new image).jpg
NaveenPatnaik.jpg
Sarat_Pattnayak_(cropped).jpg
Leader Mohan Charan Majhi Naveen Patnaik Sarat Pattanayak
Party BJP BJD INC
Alliance NDA - INDIA
Leader since 2024 1996 2022
Leader's seat Keonjhar (won) Hinjili (won) & Kantabanji (lost) Nuapada (lost)
Seats before 23 112 9
Seats won 78 51 14
Seat change Increase 55 Decrease 61 Increase 5
Popular vote 1,00,64,827 1,01,02,454 33,31,319
Percentage 40.07% 40.22% 13.26%
Swing Increase 7.58% Decrease 4.49% Decrease2.86%
Structure of the Odisha Legislative Assembly after the election
Chief Minister before election

Naveen Patnaik
BJD

Elected Chief Minister

Mohan Charan Majhi
BJP

Legislative Assembly elections were held in the eastern coastal state of Odisha from 13 May to 1 June 2024 to elect the 147 members of the Odisha Legislative Assembly. The votes were counted and results were declared on 4 June 2024 forming the 17th Assembly.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a simple majority with 78 seats and created history by ending the 24 year rule of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its leader Naveen Patnaik. On 12th June 2024, Mohan Charan Majhi, the MLA from Keonjhar took oath as the 15th Chief Minister of the state, along with Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida as deputy chief ministers.

Background

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The tenure of sixteenth Odisha Legislative Assembly was scheduled to end on 24 June 2024.[1] The previous assembly elections were held in April 2019. After the elections, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) formed the state government, with the then incumbent Naveen Patnaik continuing as the Chief Minister.[2]

Schedule

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The schedule of the election was announced by the Election Commission of India on 16 March 2024.[3] The polling was held in four phases which coincided with the phases 4 to 7 of the simultaneously held Indian General Election.[4]

Phase wise schedule of 2024 Odisha Legislative Assembly Election
Poll Event Phase
1 2 3 4
Notification Date 18 April 26 April 29 April 7 May
Last Date for filing nomination 25 April 3 May 6 May 14 May
Scrutiny of nomination 26 Apr 4 May 7 May 15 May
Last Date for Withdrawal of nomination 29 April 6 May 9 May 17 May
Poll 13 May 20 May 25 May 1 June
Counting of Votes 4 June 2024

Parties and campaigns

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Alliance/Party Flag Symbol Leader Seats Contested
Biju Janata Dal Naveen Patnaik 147
Bharatiya Janata Party Manmohan Samal[5] 147
Indian National Congress Sarat Pattanayak 145
Communist Party of India (Marxist) Ali Kishor Patnaik[6] 7[7]
Bahujan Samaj Party Tankadhar Bag[8] TBD
Communist Party of India Abhay Sahu[9] 11
Aam Aadmi Party Nishikanta Mohapatra[10] 48 (declared)[11]

BJD and BJP contested in all the 147 constituencies, whereas INC contested in 145 seats and provided support to other parties in the 2 remainder constituencies. Election manifesto of BJD included 24 major promises like youth empowerment, free electricity to farmers, zero interest loans to businesswomen, tribal empowerment, infrastructure and sports development, food security and good governance.[12] BJP's manifesto included 21 major points like the start of "Samrudh Krushak Niti" under which paddy crop would receive ₹3,100 (US$37) price per quintal and "Subhadra Yojana" which would allow ₹50,000 (US$600) cash voucher to women. It also included development of fishing industry, increasing road connectivity, providing 3.5 lakh jobs by 2029, increasing tourism and more. BJP also focused on reducing the corrupt practices of the incumbent BJD government.[13]

Another important factor was the possibility of Naveen Patnaik, who had been ruling for the last 24 years, being succeeded by his personal secretary V. K. Pandian, a Tamil IAS officer. Pandian came into the good-books of Patnaik due to his effective management of the COVID-19 pandemic in the state. In 2023, Pandian quit his job in the state bureaucracy and joined the ruling BJD. The BJP heavily campaigned on the prospect of BJD planning to make an "outsider" like Pandian the next CM,[14] with Prime Minister Narendra Modi even alleging that Pandian was secretly siphoning off money from the treasury of Puri's Jagannath Temple,[15] a charge which Pandian vehemently denied.[16] Patnaik refuted all rumours of Pandian being his successor.[17]

Candidates

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Overall 1,283 candidates contested the elections for the 147 seats in the assembly. Out of these, 348 candidates (approximately 27%) had declared criminal cases against themselves and 292 (approximately 23%) had serious criminal cases against themselves. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and Odisha Election Watch reported that 66 candidates have declared cases for the crime committed against women, with 4 candidates declaring that they have been charged for rape. In their affidavit filed before elections, 10 candidates have declared that they have cases related to murder. 5 candidates informed in their candidature about cases filed against them related to hate speech. Party-wise, the percentages of candidates with criminal cases are: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have ~68%, Indian National Congress (INC) with ~41%, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have ~31%, and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is with ~17.[18]

As per the affidavits, 412 (BJD - 128, BJP - 96, INC- 88, AAP - 11, Others - 89) had declared their family's assets to be worth more than ₹1 crore (US$120,000) and average assets were worth ₹2.89 crore (US$350,000). Highest assets were declared by Dilip Kumar Ray (BJP, Rourkela seat, ₹313 crore (US$38 million)) followed by Sanatan Mahakud (BJD, Champua seat, ₹227 crore (US$27 million)) and Subasini Jena (BJD, Basta seat, ₹135 crore (US$16 million)). Education wise, 652 candidates (approximately 51%) had education of graduate or above and only 2 were illiterate. 51 candidates had diplomas and 566 contestants had studied classes from 5th to 12th. Only 14% of candidates (i.e. 178) were women.[18] BJD had been the strong supporter of the Women's Reservation Bill, 2023 and had nominated 34 women candidates (approximately 23%) out of 147 and majority of these were from political families. BJP provided tickets to 10 women candidates.[19]

Surveys and polls

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The exit polls by Axis My India presented that both BJP & BJD may win 62-80 seats; also predicting the worst case of concluding in a hung assembly.[22] However, Times Now predicted a clear win for BJD continuing their hold on the Odisha state government.[23]

Exit Polls
Polling agency BJP BJD INC
Axis My India[24] 62-80 62-80 5-8
Times Now - ETG[23] 30-38 100-115 4-7

Results and statistics

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BJP won 78 seats as compared to 23 from previous election whereas BJD won 51 as against to 115. Of the 147 MLAs elected, 11 are women (~7%) which has reduced from 14 MLAs from previous assembly. Out of these 11 women MLAs, 5 are from BJP, 5 from BJD and one from INC.[19] In 2019, the MLAs with at least under graduate education was 73%; which reduced to 65%. The average age of the assembly is 51.[25] Out of all the winning candidates, 85 have declared in their pre-poll affidavits to have criminal cases registered against them, as compared to 67 in previous assembly. Of these, 67 have serious criminal cases.[26]

97 incumbent MLAs contested for this election of which only 45 won. Although incumbency was a major campaign against BJD, 66 incumbent BJD MLAs contested the polls, of which 25 won. Naveen Patnaik the incumbent Chief Minister, won in the Hinjli constituency with a margin of 4,636 votes but lost in Kantabanji constituency with a margin of 16,344 votes.[27] 5 MLAs have won from their respective constituencies with margin of less than a thousand votes.[28] Notably amongst them is Ananta Narayan Jena of BJD winning by 37 votes from Bhubaneswar Central.[29] Aswini Kumar Patra (former Cultural Minister, Jaleswar seat) and Arun Kumar Sahoo (former Education Minister, Nayagarh seat) won by 319 and 439 votes respectively.[30][31] Biswa Ranjan Mallick of BJD won from the Bari seat with the highest margin of 51,465 by winning 63.77% votes.[32]

Results by party

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Vote Share

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Vote share by party

  Biju Janata Dal (40.22%)
  Bharatiya Janata Party (40.07%)
  Indian National Congress (13.26%)
  Other (6.45%)
Party Popular vote Seats
Votes % ±pp Contested Won +/−
Bharatiya Janata Party 1,00,64,827 40.07 Increase7.5 147 78 Increase55
Biju Janata Dal 1,01,02,454 40.22 Decrease4.5 147 51 Decrease61
Indian National Congress 33,31,319 13.26 Decrease2.8 145 14 Increase5
Communist Party of India (Marxist) 93,295 0.37 Increase0.07 7 1 Steady
Independents - - - 3 Increase2
NOTA 2,57,355 1.02 Decrease1.8
Total 100% - 147 -
Source:[33]

Results by regions & districts

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Regions Seats
BJP BJD INC+ Others
Northern Odisha 41 25 14 2 0
Central Odisha 65 32 28 2 3
Southern Odisha 41 21 9 11 0
Total 147 78 51 15 3
District Seats
BJP BJD INC+ Others
Bargarh 5 4 1 0 0
Jharsuguda 2 2 0 0 0
Sundargarh 7 2 3 2 0
Sambalpur 4 2 2 0 0
Deogarh 1 0 1 0 0
Kendujhar 6 3 3 0 0
Mayurbhanj 9 9 0 0 0
Balasore 8 4 4 0 0
Bhadrak 5 2 2 1 0
Jajpur 7 3 3 0 1
Dhenkanal 4 4 0 0 0
Angul 5 3 2 0 0
Subarnapur 2 1 1 0 0
Balangir 5 4 1 0 0
Nuapada 2 0 2 0 0
Nabarangpur 4 3 1 0 0
Kalahandi 5 1 3 1 0
Kandhamal 3 1 1 1 0
Boudh 2 2 0 0 0
Cuttack 9 2 4 1 2
Kendrapara 5 1 4 0 0
Jagatsinghpur 4 2 2 0 0
Puri 6 4 2 0 0
Khordha 8 3 5 0 0
Nayagarh 4 2 2 0 0
Ganjam 13 11 1 1 0
Gajapati 2 0 1 1 0
Rayagada 3 0 0 3 0
Koraput 5 2 0 3 0
Malkangiri 2 1 0 1 0
Total 147 78 51 15 3

Results by constituency

[edit]

Aftermath

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On 4 June 2024, BJP won 78 seats crossing the required majority mark of 74 and thus won the elections. Mohan Charan Majhi was declared to be the Chief Minister and was sworn in on 12 June to form the state government.[35][36][37] 15 other ministers took oaths, including Kanak Vardhan Singh Deo and Pravati Parida as the Deputy CMs.[38]

Pandian was single-handedly blamed by the rank-and-file of BJD for its spectacular loss in both state election and the simultaneously held Lok Sabha elections. Following this massive backlash, Pandian decided to quit active politics.[39]

BJD had nominated 34 women candidates, but only 5 could win. The Hindu reported that although these women candidates were from political families, winnability factor was ignored and strong anti-incumbency feeling amongst the voters played an important role against them.[19] Ganesh Gaigouria, visiting faculty of National Law School of India University, Bengaluru writing for Indian Express commented that major three reasons for loss of BJD in the elections were fear of bureaucratisation of the state administration under Pandian, religious polarization in the aftermath of communal riots between Hindus & Muslims in Sambalpur last year[40] and identity politics over Odia Asmita (i.e. pride in being Odia) in the backdrop of the Tamil origin Pandian's prospects of becoming CM. Gaigouria argues that BJP successfully campaigned against BJD on these points and won the elections.[41]

Himanshu Sekhar Sahoo, who was elected from the Dharmasala seat as an independent, rejoined the BJP.[42]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Terms of the Houses". Election Commission of India. Archived from the original on 28 March 2022. Retrieved 13 February 2022.
  2. ^ "Naveen Patnaik takes oath as Odisha CM for fifth consecutive term". The Hindu Business Line. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2022.
  3. ^ "Odisha Assembly Election 2024 to be held in 4 phases: Here is complete schedule". Hindustan Times. 16 March 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  4. ^ "Odisha Assembly elections 2024: Polls to be held in 4 phases; 3.32 crore voters will exercise franchise". The Indian Express. 16 March 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  5. ^ "Ex-minister Manmohan Samal becomes Odisha BJP president". The Times of India. 24 March 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  6. ^ "Odisha: CPI(M) State Conference Resolves to Strengthen Organisation". Communist Party of India (Marxist). 16 January 2022. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  7. ^ "Odisha: CPI (M) announces candidates for Bhubaneswar LS seat, 7 assembly constituencies". The Economic Times. 18 April 2024. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  8. ^ "BSP to contest all Assly seats in State". The Pioneer. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  9. ^ "Mixed response to Odisha Budget". The Times of India. 25 February 2023. ISSN 0971-8257. Retrieved 1 March 2024.
  10. ^ "AAP jumps in to Odisha opposition fray amid BJP-BJD seat-sharing deals". Hindustan Times. 9 March 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2024.
  11. ^ "Hemant Soren's Sister Anjani In Poll Fray Again From Mayurbhanj; AAP Names 11 More MLA Candidates". odishabytes. 2 May 2024. Retrieved 7 May 2024.
  12. ^ "BJD Manifesto Odisha 2024 - Vision for Odisha No 1" (PDF). BJD. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  13. ^ "BJP manifesto Odisha 2024" (PDF). BJP. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  14. ^ Singh, D. K.; ThePrint (27 May 2024). "Why ex-IAS officer VK Pandian, Odisha CM Patnaik's confidant, is in Modi-Shah crosshairs". ThePrint. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  15. ^ "In dig at VK Pandian, Modi says in Odisha, 'People say keys of Ratna Bhandar sent to Tamil Nadu'". The Indian Express. 20 May 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  16. ^ PTI. "Let PM Modi find keys to Ratna Bhandar if he has 'some knowledge': V K Pandian". Deccan Herald. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  17. ^ "V K Pandian 'not my successor', says Naveen Patnaik as BJP sharpens attack on ex-bureaucrat's influence". The Indian Express. 30 May 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  18. ^ a b "Odisha assembly polls: 27% candidates declared criminal cases, as per ADR report". Hindustan Times. 27 May 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  19. ^ a b c Barik, Satyasundar (7 June 2024). "BJD's bold move to boost women's representation fails to meet expectations". The Hindu. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  20. ^ "Poll equation gets complex in Birmitrapur after JMM names Nihar as its candidate". The New Indian Express. 29 April 2024. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  21. ^ "Odisha: CPI (M) announces candidates for Bhubaneswar LS seat, 7 assembly constituencies". The Economic Times. 18 April 2024. ISSN 0013-0389. Retrieved 5 May 2024.
  22. ^ Sharma, Rishabh (2 June 2024). "Odisha dead heat, 62-80 seats for Naveen Patnaik's BJD, BJP: Axis My India poll". India Today. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  23. ^ a b Debabrata Mohapatra (3 June 2024). "BJD to win 100 to 115 assembly seats in Odisha in 2024 elections, predicts exit poll". Times of India. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  24. ^ "Odisha Assembly Exit Poll Results 2024: BJP may pull off a surprise, likely to win 62-80 seats, predicts Axis My India". The Times of India. 2 June 2024. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  25. ^ "Profile of 17th Odisha Legislative Assembly". PRS India. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  26. ^ "Odisha: 85 winning candidates in 2024 assembly election have criminal cases - Report". UNI India. 7 June 2014. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  27. ^ "Assembly Elections 2024: Odisha Assembly results at a glance". The Hindu. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  28. ^ Pradhan, Hemanta (7 June 2024). "Five MLAs won by less than 1k votes; one by 37". Times of India. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  29. ^ "112 - Bhubaneswar Central (Odisha) result". Election Commission of India. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  30. ^ "35 - Jaleswar (Odisha) result". Election Commission of India. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  31. ^ "122 - Nayagarh (Odisha) result". Election Commission of India. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  32. ^ "49 - Bari (Odisha) result". Election Commission of India. 4 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  33. ^ "Odisha Assembly Results 2024". Election Commission of India. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
  34. ^ The Indian Express (5 June 2024). "Full list of Odisha Assembly elections 2024 winners". Archived from the original on 18 June 2024. Retrieved 18 June 2024.
  35. ^ "Odisha CM oath-taking ceremony: BJP leader Mohan Majhi new Odisha CM, to take oath today". The Hindu. 12 June 2024. Archived from the original on 12 June 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  36. ^ "Former teacher to Odisha Chief Minister: How Mohan Majhi climbed political ladder". India Today. 12 June 2024. Archived from the original on 13 June 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  37. ^ "Odisha's new CM — who is Mohan Charan Majhi and what prompted the BJP to choose him". CNBC TV18. 12 June 2024. Retrieved 12 June 2024.
  38. ^ "Mohan Charan Majhi Cabinet in Odisha: Full list of BJP ministers who took oath today". www.indiatvnews.com. 12 June 2024.
  39. ^ "'I am sorry': VK Pandian quits active politics after BJD's shock Odisha defeat". India Today. 9 June 2024. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  40. ^ "Fresh violence erupts in Odisha's Sambalpur during Hanuman Jayanti rally, several shops gutted". India Today. 14 April 2023. Retrieved 23 June 2024.
  41. ^ Gaigouria, Ganesh (14 June 2024). "Three reasons why Naveen Patnaik lost Odisha". Indian Express. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  42. ^ "Expelled BJP leader Himanshu Sahoo joins party after defeating BJD candidate in Odisha polls | Sambad English". 5 June 2024. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
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