Jharsuguda: Biju Janayta Dal (BJD) candidate Deepali Das has established a lead of 21,666 votes over her nearest Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nominee Tankadhar Tripathy in Jharsuguda Assembly by-election in Odisha.
At the end of 8th round of counting, Deepali polled 47,223 votes against 25557 bagged by Tankadhar. Congress candidate Tarun Pandey was pushed to the third place with 2685 votes.
By widening her lead after every round of counting, Deepali, Dauguter of slain minister Naba Kishore Das, has placed herself in a comfortable position. The bypoll was necessitated following the murder of Naba Das allegedly by a policeman on January 29.
Counting of votes for Jharsuguda by-election, which saw 79.21 % polling on May 10, began at 14 tables on Saturday.
According to Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Dhal, there will be 18 complete rounds and one partial round. Postal ballots were counted first.
A three-layer security arrangement has been made for the counting process, he added.
It may be noted that around 1,75, 616 voters (79.21%) exercised their franchise in the bypoll in Jharsuguda. The male voter turnout in the constituency stood at 80.5% (89,044) while the female voter turnout was 77.96% (86,560). Of the 63 transgender voters, 12 exercised their franchise.
