Assembly election 2019: Who will win in Odisha BJD or BJP? Counting in 147 seats in today

The fate of 1,137 candidates in fray from 147 assembly constituencies, which voted on April 11 in the first phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election, will be decided on May 23, Thursday. The final results will be declared after the counting of votes is over.

PURI:: It's Sunday, May 23, 2019. Voting will begin to decide the fate of 1,137 candidates in fray from 147 assembly constituencies in Odisha in a short while from now. The voting in 147 assembly segments in Odisha was held in the single phase of 2019 Lok Sabha election on April 11.

Counting will begin at 8 AM. This time, due to the Supreme Court's instruction to the Election Commission (EC), the Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) slips tally will also be taken into account while counting the votes. Paper slips of five VVPATs per assembly segment in every parliamentary segment will be counted. The vote tallying will begin after the last round of counting. This is likely to delay the results by at least five hours or more.

The state electoral body had set up 37,606 polling stations for the smooth, free and fair conduct of the polls in Odisha. As many as 4,154 polling stations were set up in urban regions while 33,452 polling stations lie in rural regions of the state.

The total number of electorates eligible to vote for the Odisha Assembly and Lok Sabha elections stood at 3.18 crore. Of the total 3.18 crore electorates, 1.63 crores are males while 1.54 crore are females. The state also registered over 5.45 lakh first-time voters, who come in the age group of 18 to 19 years.

The state witnessed a triangular contest between the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress. BJD chief Naveen Patnaik is one of the strongest contenders. Besides, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, former BJD leader Baijayant Panda, who recently joined hands with the saffron party, Congress’ Niranjan Patnaik and Narasingha Mishra are also in the fray. BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab and former state finance minister Prasanna Acharya are also among the prominent faces to watch out for.

Most of the exit polls have indicated a fifth consecutive term for Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha. In the Assembly election, Naveen Patnaik's party is ahead as per the exit polls forecast. Last time, BJD had secured 117 seats in the 147-member Odisha Assembly. The BJP could win in 10 seats in the assembly while Congress had 16 MLAs. The state's main opposition party - the Congress – has claimed that its performance this time will be much better than its 2014 election show.