BJD candidates lead over BJP rivals in Odisha bypolls

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD candidates have established early leads over their nearest BJP rivals in both Balasore and Tirtol assembly constituencies, where counting of votes polled in the by-elections held last week is in progress on Tuesday.

As per early trends, BJD's Bijay Shankar Das was leading over BJP candidate Rajkishore Behera by 1,078 votes in Tirtol seat in Jagatsinghpur district, election officials said.

Das has polled 3,852 votes so far, while Behera has bagged 2,774 votes. Congress nominee Himanshu



Bhushan Mallick has got 442 votes.

In Balasore, BJD candidate Swarup Kumar Das was leading over his nearest BJP nominee Manas Kumar Dutta by 615 votes.

Das has bagged 3,459 votes while Dutta closely followed with 2,844 votes. Congress candidate Mamata Kundu was trailing in third place with 523 votes.

The deaths of Balasore's BJP MLA Madan Mohan Dutta and Tirtol's BJD legislator Bishnu Charan Das necessitated the by-elections which were held on November 3.