Bhubaneswar: After trailing during initial rounds of counting, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD president Naveen Patnaik was now ahead of his nearest BJP candidate Laxman Bag by a close margin of 828 votes in Kantabanji Assembly constituency as counting of votes was in progress.
As per Election Commission of India (ECI) sources, the BJD supremo has polled 19,097 votes at the end of sixth round of counting, while BJP’s Laxman Bag bagged 18,269 votes in Kantabanji.
Sitting Congress MLA Santosh Singh Saluja was pushed to the third place with 4743 votes by third round of counting.
Naveen, who is contesting the Assembly polls from two seats, was also leading over his nearest BJP candidate Sisir Kumar Mishra by 3445 votes in his home turf Hinhili in Ganjam district after fourth round of counting.
