BJD takes early lead in Patkura Assembly polls in Odisha

The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday took an early lead in the counting of votes for election to the Patkura Assembly constituency in Odisha’s Kendrapara district.

Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Bijoy Mohapatra is trailing against BJD’s Sabitri Agarwal, while Congress candidate Jayanta Kumar Mohanty was way behind the two candidates.

Agarwal was leading by 7,431 votes by the fourth round of the counting, said sources.
While she secured 25,214 votes, Mohapatra got 17,783 votes. Congress candidate received 704 votes, sources added.

A total of 18 rounds of counting will be done for 309 polling booths. Around 72.69 per cent of the total 2,44,747 voters had exercised their franchise in the polling for the Patkura Assembly seat, which was held on July 20 after being postponed twice in the past few months.

The poll to the seat was earlier scheduled to be held in the fourth phase of recently concluded general elections on April 29. However, the election was postponed following the death of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwalla on April 20.

Later, the Election Commission postponed the election in view of cyclone Fani that hit the state on May 3.

(IANS)