BJP Set To Decimate BJD In Odisha, May Form State Government Too

Naveen Patnaik has been the Odisha chief minister since 2000.

While the BJP is likely to end up nowhere close to its target of 370 Lok Sabha seats and well short even of its 2019 figure of 303, Odisha may emerge as the shining light for the party. Leads suggest that not only will the BJP emerge as the single largest party in the state in the Lok Sabha elections, decimating the BJD, but also win the Assembly polls, giving the state a different chief minister for the first time in 24 years.

As of 12.54 pm, the numbers are staggeringly in the BJP's favour in the Lok Sabha elections, much better even than NDTV's Poll of Polls, the aggregate of exit polls, had predicted. The BJP is leading in 19 of the state's 21 seats, reducing Naveen Patnaik's BJD to just one. For the regional behemoth, this will be an astounding fall - it had won 20 constituencies in 2014 and 12 in 2019.

What will undoubtedly hurt the BJD and Mr Patnaik more, however, is the BJP's lead in the Assembly elections. As things stand now, the BJP is leading in 71 seats of the state's 143, exactly at the majority mark, and 48 higher than the figure it had managed to get to in 2019. The BJD is at 60, down from 112.