The 2009 Orissa 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 Orissa State Assembly with a more convincing majority. Party chief Naveen Patnaik was formally re-elected as the BJD Legislature party leader on 19 May, thus paving the way for his third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Orissa.
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. The Naveen Patnaik government had been sworn in at the Bhubaneswar Raj Bhavan by Orissa Governor M. M. Rajendran in May 2004.
Background With the tenure of the Orissa Assembly scheduled to expire on 29 June 2009, the Election Commission of India announced 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. 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. Naveen Patnaik then won a controversial trust vote on 11 March 2009, after the opposition Congress and BJP legislators walked out of the Assembly in protest in the manner the vote was being conducted.
The BJD then declared that they support neither Congress nor BJP. 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.
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
Parties and alliances
PartyFlagSymbolLeaderSeats contestedBiju Janata DalNaveen Patnaik 129Nationalist Congress PartyP. A. Sangma 8Communist Party of India 5Communist Party of India (Marxist)Prakash Karat 4
PartyFlagSymbolLeaderSeats contestedIndian National CongressBhupendra Singh147
PartyFlagSymbolLeaderSeats contestedBharatiya Janata PartyBiswabhusan Harichandan 145
Number of candidates Party Type Code Party name Number ofcandidates 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
List of Candidates from Major Parties