By Our Correspondent
BHUBANESWAR: Total votes in 319 booths will be counted in 14 tables in each round. There will be 23 rounds of counting for the by-poll. So, the counting process may be delayed on Thursday , Chief Electoral Officer Susil Kumar Lohani said.
The counting will start at 8 AM at RMC Godown, Padampur. The by-poll for Padampur was held on December 5. Fate of 10 candidates including BJD, BJP and Congress will be known on Thursday.
First counting of postal ballots will be taken up at 8 AM. All the postal ballots received from service voters (24) as well as absentee voters (272) , total 296 postal ballots will be taken up for counting. Postal ballots from service voters will also be included which are received till 7.59 AM on the counting day, he said.
Each candidate can appoint one agent for each table and one for counting agents for the RO table for counting postal ballots etc. Besides, the candidate or his/her election agent can remain present in the counting hall.
The fate of BJD’s Barsha Singh Bariha, daughter of late MLA Bijaya Ranjan Singh Bariha, BJP’s Pradip Purohit, who had won the seat in 2014 but lost to BJD’s Bijaya Bariha in 2019, and . Congress’s three-time MLA Satya Bhusan Sahu, will be decided.
