Bhubaneswar (SunstarBureau): BJD seems to have marching towards the victory in the bypoll election race with a vote count of 51,093 at Balasore Sadar and 46,931 at Tirtol constituencies, where as BJP lags behind with a vote count of 44,617 and 25,985 at Balasore and Tirtol respectively. Congress still stands last with total vote count of 3,337 and 12,145 at Balasore and Tirtol accordingly till the end of 14th round vote count.
The counting of votes started at 8 am amid tight security arrangements and strict adherence to COVID-19 guidelines. The bypolls were held on November 3.
The electoral fortunes of 15 candidates stay hanging -six in Balasore and nine in Tirtol , will be decided today. The BJP has fielded Manas Kumar Dutta, the son of late MLA Madan Mohan Dutta, in the Balasore seat, while Swarup Das is the BJD candidate and the Congress nominated Mamata Kundu. The BJD has fielded Bijay Shankar Das, the son of Bishnu Charan Das, in the Tirtol seat, while the Congress candidate in Himansu Bhushan Mallick, and Rajkishore Behera is the BJP nominee.
