2009 Odisha Legislative Assembly election

The 2009 Odisha Legislative Assembly election took place in April 2009, concurrently with the general election. The elections were held in the state in two phases. The results were declared on 16 May. Despite having recently separated from the Bharatiya Janata Party after an eleven-year partnership, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) retained power in the Odisha State Assembly with a more convincing majority. Party chief Naveen Patnaik was formally re-elected as the BJD Legislature party leader on 19 May,[2] thus paving the way for his third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Odisha.

2009 Odisha Legislative Assembly election

16, 23 April 2009
All 147 Assembly Constituencies 74 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	65.35%[1]
Leader Naveen Patnaik Bhupinder Singh Party BJD INC Alliance TF UPA Leader since 1996 Leader's seat Hinjili Narla Last election 2004 2004 Seats before 61 38 Seats won 103 27 Seat change 42 11 Popular vote 6,903,641 5,169,559 Percentage 38.86% 29.10% Swing 11.50% 5.72%
Odisha District Map
Chief Minister before election Naveen Patnaik BJD Elected Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik BJD

Previous Assembly

In the 2004 Orissa Assembly election, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) had swept the state with the BJD winning 61 seats and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) winning 32 seats, giving the alliance comfortable majority in the 147-member house. This was the second consecutive term for the BJD-BJP combine after they first formed the government in 2000.[3] The Naveen Patnaik government had been sworn in at the Bhubaneswar Raj Bhavan by Odisha Governor M. M. Rajendran in May 2004.[4]

Background

With the tenure of the Orissa Assembly scheduled to expire on 29 June 2009, the Election Commission of India announced[5] on 2 March that year that the elections to the Assembly would be held alongside the general election. The election in each Assembly constituency (AC) was held in the same phase as the election to the corresponding Parliamentary constituency that the AC fell under.

Seat-sharing discussions got underway between allies, after eleven years of partnership and nearly two full terms as the Orissa state government, the BJD snapped ties with the BJP in March 2009, blaming the latter for the 2008 violence against Christians.[6] Thereafter, the BJP withdrew support to Government and Governor Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare asked Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik to prove his majority in the Orissa Assembly.[7] Naveen Patnaik then won a controversial trust vote on 11 May 2009, after the opposition Congress and BJP legislators walked out of the Assembly in protest in the manner the vote was being conducted.[8]

The BJD then declared that they support neither Congress nor BJP.[9] Though they decided to contest the 2009 elections in partnership with the Left Front and Nationalist Congress Party, the BJD did not officially join the Third Front.[10]

Schedule of election

Poll Event	Phase 1	Phase 2
Announcement & Issue of Press Note	Monday, 02 Mar 2009
Issue of Notification	Monday, 23 Mar 2009	Saturday, 28 Mar 2009
Last Date for filing Nominations	Monday, 30 Mar 2009	Saturday, 04 Apr 2009
Scrutiny of Nominations	Tuesday, 31 Mar 2009	Monday, 06 Apr 2009
Last date for withdrawal of Candidature	Thursday, 02 Apr 2009	Wednesday, 08 Apr 2009
Date of Poll	Thursday, 16 Apr 2009	Thursday, 23 Apr 2009
Counting of Votes on	Saturday, 16 May 2009
Date of election being completed	Thursday, 28 May 2009
Constituencies Polling on this day	70	77
Source: Election Commission of India[5]

Location of Orissa in India

Results

Government formation

Despite fighting against both BJP & Congress, the BJD emerged victorious with more than two-thirds majority in the 147 member Legislative Assembly. Naveen Patnaik was sworn in for his third consecutive term by Governor M.C. Bhandare on 2009-05-21 at the Bhubaneswar Raj Bhavan.[11]

Number of seats

Source: Election Commission of India

Party	Flag	Seats won	Seats change	Popular vote	Vote share	Swing
Biju Janata Dal		103	+42	6,903,641	38.86%	+11.50%
Indian National Congress		27	-11	5,169,559	29.10%	-5.72%
Bharatiya Janata Party		6	-26	2,674,067	15.05%	-2.06%
Independent		6	-2	1,536,745	8.65%	-3.55%
Nationalist Congress Party		4	+4	237,528	1.34%	+1.34%
Communist Party of India		1	+0	89,852	0.51%	-0.26%

Number of candidates

Party Type	Code	Party Name	Number of candidates	Total
National Parties	BJP	Bharatiya Janata Party	145	423
	BSP	Bahujan Samaj Party	114
	CPI	Communist Party of India	5
	CPM	Communist Party of India (Marxist)	4
	INC	Indian National Congress	147
	NCP	Nationalist Congress Party	8
State Parties	BJD	Biju Janata Dal	129	161
	JMM	Jharkhand Mukti Morcha	32
State Parties - Other States	AITC	All India Trinamool Congress	5	86
	JD(U)	Janata Dal (United)	10
	LJP	Lok Jan Shakti Party	8
	RSP	Revolutionary Socialist Party	18
	SP	Samajwadi Party	45
Unrecognised or Unregistered Parties	AJSU	All Jharkhand Students Union	4	247
	BJSH	Bharatiya Jan Shakti	3
	BOP	Bira Oriya Party	1
	CPI(ML)(L)	Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation	17
	IJP	Indian Justice Party	5
	JDP	Jharkhand Disom Party	6
	JHKP	Jana Hitkari Party	7
	JKP	Jharkhand Party	1
	KOKD	Kosal Kranti Dal	18
	KS	Kalinga Sena	36
	LSP	Lok Satta Party	1
	OCP	Orissa Communist Party	2
	OMM	Orissa Mukti Morcha	8
	RPD	Rashtriya Parivartan Dal	16
	RPI	Republican Party of India	5
	RPI(A)	Republican Party of India (Athavale)	13
	RWS	Rashtrawadi Sena	4
	SAMO	Samurdha Odisha	99
	SWJP	Samajwadi Jan Parishad	1
Independents	n/a	Independents	371	371
Total:				1288
Source: Election Commission of India[1]

See also

• State Assembly elections in India, 2009
• Indian general election in Orissa, 2009
• Legislative Assembly election results of Orissa

References

1. "ECI Analysis - Assembly Election" (PDF). Election Commission of India. Retrieved 2014-03-14.
2. "Naveen named Legislature Party Leader". The Hindu. 2009-05-20. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
3. "25-member Naveen ministry takes office". The Indian Express. 2000-03-06. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
4. "Naveen Ministry sworn in". The Hindu. 2004-05-17. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
5. "General Elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Sikkim" (PDF). Election Commission of India. 2 March 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 19, 2009. Retrieved 2009-10-07.
6. Karan, Jajati (2009-03-19). "Kandhamal riots forced BJD to snap ties with BJP". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
7. Das, Prafulla (2009-03-09). "Naveen Patnaik asked to seek confidence vote on March 11". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
8. Das, Prafulla (2009-03-12). "Naveen wins trust vote". The Hindu. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
9. "BJD not to support Cong-led or BJP-led govt at Centre: Naveen". The Hindu. 2009-03-14. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
10. "BJD, Left and NCP join hands in Orissa". Rediff.com. 2009-04-03. Retrieved 2009-10-27.
11. "Naveen Patnaik begins third term as Orissa CM". NDTV. 2009-05-21. Retrieved 2009-10-27.