Congress's Patkura candidate loses deposit

BHUBANESWAR: Another heavy defeat for Congress, another loss of deposit for the candidate. With Patkura, 78 Congress candidates have now lost their deposits in the assembly election, more than half of the 140 candidates the party had fielded in the assembly election. As far as Lok Sabha polls are concerned, 11 Congress candidates lost their deposits out of the 18 the party had fielded.For a party which had governed Odisha in the past, this in essence tells the story of how far it has lost ground.
The response, though, has remained typical of the Congress. "We humbly accept the mandate. The factors behind the defeat will be examined," senior MLA and Congress legislature party leader Narasingha Mishra said.
A committee has been examining the reasons behind the party's debacle in the state in the recent elections, where it has won only 9 assembly seats and only one Lok Sabha seat. This committee will look into the defeat in Patkura, where Congress candidate Jayant Mohanty managed just 2,106 votes of the nearly 1.76 lakh votes polled on July 20. In 2014, the Congress had got over 42,000 votes.
Mohanty said the bulk of Congress votes went to the BJP. "I am surprised with the result. But I respect the people's mandate. Since I was the candidate, I am responsible for the defeat," Mohanty said. His rivals Sabitri Agarwalla of the BJD won the election with 96,030 votes with BJP's Bijoy Mohapatra polling in 78,133 votes, up from the 21,588 it had got last time.