The long run ends
The BJD lost power for the first time in years, defeated by its long-time rival.
The long run ends
What happened
Biju Janata Dal lost power for the first time, defeated by its long-time rival.
The Bharatiya Janata Party won 78 of the 147 seats on offer.
That was enough for a majority, 4 seats more than it needed.
Its own 40.1% share of the vote was fractionally behind the BJD's 40.2%, despite the wide gap in seats.
What changed
The real story here was what happened to BJD, not just who replaced it.
The single largest flow of seats ran from the BJD to the BJP.
That flow alone accounted for 61 of the 147 seats compared — a landslide, and a collapse for the party that had governed for so long.
Notable numbers
A few numbers from that election stand out.
Turnout — the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot — reached 74.8% statewide, the highest Odisha has ever recorded in an assembly election.
The closest race: Bhubaneswar Central, Odisha was decided by just 37 votes — the margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second.
At the other extreme, Bari, Odisha was won by a margin of 32.2% of the vote — one of the most one-sided results anywhere in the state.
The best turnout of the year was in Athamallik, Odisha, at 86.0%.
The backdrop
This election marked the end of one leader's long tenure running the state government.
Naveen Patnaik was sworn in as Chief Minister of Odisha on 5 March 2000 and served continuously across five terms until the BJP's 2024 election win ended BJD's government; he resigned on 5 June 2024, and Mohan Charan Majhi (BJP) was sworn in as his successor on 12 June 2024.