Bhubaneswar: Barabati-Cuttack Assembly constituency in Odisha is witnessing a neck-and neck contest between BJP’s Purna Chandra Mahapatra and Congress’ Sofia Firdous.
Sofia, who replaced her father and sitting MLA Mohammed Moquim from the seat, was trailing by 620 votes after 6 of 18 rounds of counting but gained a lead of 768 votes after the seventh round.
Similarly, state BJP chief Manmohan Samal was head of his BJD rival Byomkesh Ray in Chandbali by 699 votes as counting progressed to 6th of 19 rounds, but lost his lead in the 7th round and was trailing by 490 votes.
In Chikiti, Manoranjan Dyan Samantara is leading by 247 against BJD’s Chinmayananda Srirup Deb after 6 of 18 rounds of counting.
Dipali Das is trailing by 993 votes against BJP’s Tankadhar Tripathy, whom she had defeated by 48,721 votes in the bypolls to Jharsuguda Assembly seat following the death of her father and former minister Naba Das, after 17 of 19 rounds of counting.
Junagarh is also witnessing a close contest with former minister and BJD candidate Dibya Shankar Mishra trailing behind BJP’s Manoj Meher by 54 votes after 11 of 23 rounds of counting. BJP’s Satrughan Jena is currently ahead of BJD candidate Prafulla Kumar Mallik, who served as Steel and Minister in Naveen Patnaik cabinet, by 330 votes as counting continues in Kamakhyanagar.
In Niali, BJP’s Chhabi Malik is ahead of BJD’s Pramod Kumar Mallik by 192 votes after 6 of 28 rounds of counting. Pradeep Bal Samanta is leading by 154 votes against Pritiranjan Gharai in Sukinda after 6 of 19 rounds of counting.
Actor-turned-politician Askash Dasnayak, who switched sides to BJP ahead of the polls, is leading by 819 votes against BJD’s Sandhyarani Das in Korei.
BJP’s Dilip Ray, who 455 votes behind BJD’s Sarada Nayak as counting progressed to the 8th of 15 rounds and gained a lead of 129 votes after the ninth round, was leading by 2,466 by the 15th round.
