Raipur/Bhubaneswar: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Purandar Mishra registered a landslide victory in Raipur City North to become the lone Odia MLA in the newly-elected Chhattisgarh Assembly.The BJP leader won with 54279 votes, beating Kuldeep Singh Juneja of INC who polled 31225. He is part of the BJP’s biggest-ever victory in Chhattisgarh, where the saffron party regained power by winning 54 of 90 seats.
Mishra is the president of Greater Odia Samaj of Chhattisgarh State and also the chief patron of the Chhattisgarh branch of World Odisha Society. He also founded the largest Jagannath Temple in the state of Chhattisgarh at Gayatri Nagar in Raipur, which falls under his constituency.
Following his win, thousands of Odia and non-Odia supporters of Mishra gathered on the premises of the Jagannath temple in Gayatri Nagar last evening to celebrate his thumping victory, whom they hailed as a true representative of 35 lakh Odias residing in Chhattisgarh.