Odisha Assembly polls: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik retains Hinjili constituency, resigns from Bijepur

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik Sunday resigned from the Bijepur Assembly constituency and retained the Hinjli seat. Patnaik sent his resignation as legislator from the Bijepur constituency in Bargarh district to Assembly Speaker SN Patro, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) general secretary Bijay Nayak said. [caption id=“attachment_4050337” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. PTI[/caption] The BJD supremo had contested the recent Assembly elections, held along with the Lok Sabha polls, from Hinjili in Ganjam district as well as Bijepur in west Odisha and emerged victorious from both. The chief minister had contested from two assembly constituencies for the first time. While retaining his membership from Hinjili, where he tasted electoral victory for the fifth consecutive time, Patnaik conveyed his gratitude to the people of Bijepur for extending support to him. He said in a statement that it was his responsibility to ensure the development of Bijepur and that he will continue to work in that direction. The chief minister said he decided to contest from Bijepur as there were requests that he should fight the 2019 assembly election from a seat in west Odisha, the statement said. Patnaik, who steered the BJD to a landslide victory in the assembly polls, had defeated his nearest BJP nominee Pitambar Acharya in the Hinjili constituency by 60,160 votes. In Bijepur, the BJD chief had defeated his BJP rival Sanat Kumar Gartia by 57,122 votes. The BJD had won 112 seats in the 147-member House. The chief minister has been winning from Hinjili in Ganjam district since 2000, when he entered state politics after serving as a Union minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. In the 2014 Assembly elections, Patnaik had won from Hinjili, defeating his Congress rival Sibaram Patra by a margin of 76,586 votes. The BJD chief had secured 73.14 per cent of the votes polled. Patnaik’s resignation from the Bijepur seat comes three days after he announced a Rs 1,330 crore package, including plans to provide pucca houses to 34,000 households having kutcha houses, for the constituency.