Team Blitz India
The BJP came up with a spectacular performance in Odisha, the NDA with an impressive show in Bihar and less than an expected tally in West Bengal and Jharkhand in the Lok Sabha elections. In Odisha, the BJP on its own bagged 20 seats, up from 8 in 2019 election. The BJD drew a blank, while it had won 12 seats in the last Lok Sabha elections.
The Congress retained Koraput. The highlight of BJP victory was that its success extended to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik ‘s home district of Ganjam. Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan won from Sambalpur. Late Biju Patnaik ‘s Kendrapara was also gobbled up by BJP with Baijayant Panda winning the seat.
The NDA beat the INDIA bloc in Bihar with the BJP and JD(U) winning an equal number of 12 seats each in the battle for 40 seats. The Lok Janshakti Party(Ram Vilas), another NDA ally, won 5 seats, all the seats it contested. The RJD has won 4 seats, the Congress 3 seats and CPI(ML)(L) has won 2 seats.
LJP president Chirag Paswan has not only maintained LJP ‘s previous track record of keeping 100% strike rate but also established he is the new Dalit leader on the scene. In 2019 election LJP under Ram Vilas Paswan had won all the six seats that were allotted to the party.
In West Bengal, the BJP sufered a setback with a drop in the number of seats it won last time: from 18 to 12. TMC increased its seats share from 22 to 29. The biggest upset for Congress, which won one seat in the state, was the defeat of Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury from Behrampur, which he held since 1999.
Trinamool Congress increased its vote share from 43.7% in 2019 to 45.7% while both BJP and CongressLF combine saw their vote share declining. The BJP-led NDA managed to win only 9 out of 14 seats in Jharkhand, a drop of 2 seats since last Lok Sabha elections.The INDIA block on the other hand raised its numbers to 5 from 2. All the tribal seats were bagged by Congress. The highlight of the election in the state was the defeat of BJP candidate Sita Soren, daughter-in-law of Shibu Soren, from Dumka. The BJP continued to hold its sway in the urban pockets of Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, Hazaribagh and Godda.
