The Ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) candidate Dipali Das was ahead of her BJP rival Tankadhar Tripathy by 15,751 votes following the the 6th round of counting in the by-election to Odisha's Jharsuguda Assembly seat on Saturday, an election official said.
The BJP candidate received 19,858 votes, while the BJD candidate received 35,609, ECI official said. As the ballots were counted, Tarun Pandey, a candidate for the Congress, was in third place with 1,948 votes. The BJD and the BJP candidate are currently in the competition out of a total of nine candidates.
At 8 a.m., the vote-counting process got under way under heavy security. Postal ballots were first counted, and then votes from electronic voting machines. 14 tables are used to count the votes, and up to 18 rounds may be necessary to complete the process. Nikunja Bihari Dhal, the chief electoral officer for Odisha, said that the counting would likely be finished by midday.
The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government led by Naveen Patnaik won't be affected by the byelection's results because the party holds a solid majority. On May 10, a total of 79.21% of the 2.21 lakh eligible voters cast a ballot.
The by-election was called in response to the January 29 alleged murder of Odisha Health Minister Naba Kishore Das by a police officer.
The BJD has 113 legislators in the 147-member Odisha Assembly, while the opposing BJP and Congress each have 22 and nine legislators. There is one CPI(M) legislator and one Independent legislator.
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