The Biju Janata Dal, led by Naveen Patnaik, won a landslide re-election in Odisha, governing without the ally it had shared power with.¹

It won 103 of the 147 seats.

That left it 29 seats clear of the 74-seat majority mark.

The Indian National Congress finished second, with 27 seats on 29.1% of the vote.

The Biju Janata Dal ended its alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party shortly before the election, citing communal tension after violence in Kandhamal district the previous year.²

It partnered instead with the Left Front and the Nationalist Congress Party, contesting 129 of the 147 seats itself while the NCP took 8, the CPI 5 and the CPM 4.³

The Election Commission of India announced that year's assembly poll would run alongside the Lok Sabha election, with voting on 16 April and 23 April, and results on 16 May.⁴

Naveen Patnaik, seeking another term as Chief Minister, contested the election himself from Hinjili.⁵

This was Odisha's first election on a new delimitation — the official redrawing of constituency boundaries that happens every so often as India's population shifts.

BJD extended its own winning streak to 3 elections in a row.

It also grew, adding 42 seats and +11.5 pp vote share from the previous election.

Turnout, the share of registered voters who actually cast a ballot, slipped -0.7 pp to 65.3%.

The closest race was at Champua, Odisha, decided by 145 votes — the margin, how far ahead the winner finished, in votes, over whoever came second. The same seat also drew the most candidates anywhere, 22 names on the ballot.

Hinjili, Odisha saw the widest margin of the election, with the winner finishing 63.9% of the vote ahead of the runner-up.

Bramhagiri, Odisha recorded the highest turnout of any seat, 78.6%.

Bhubaneswar North (Uttar), Odisha was the largest constituency by registered voters, with 2,48,377 on its rolls.

BJD traces back to 1997, when Naveen Patnaik founded it after splitting from the Janata Dal, naming it for his father and predecessor as Chief Minister, Biju Patnaik.¹