Bhubaneswar: Early trends suggest a close fight between the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the Odisha Assembly elections as counting of votes got underway at 147 centres across the state on Tuesday.
Going by early trends, BJP was ahead in 12 MLA seats followed by BJD in nine and Congress in two seats. While the BJP was leading in 12 seats, including Pipili, Bhubaneswar Ekamra, Brahmagiri, Raghunathpalli, Rourkela, Titlagarh, Satyabadi, Brarajnagar and Khurda, BJD was ahead in nine seats, including Puri, Banki, Jharsuguda and Deogarh.
Congress was leading in two seats, including Bhograi assembly seat.
Chief electoral office sources said postal ballots have been counted and counting of the first round of EVM votes are on for different constituencies. About 18 to 19 rounds of counting of votes will take place before the final results will be declared.
All the counting centres are located within the premises of 70 EVM strong rooms under the jurisdiction of 34 police districts.
