BHUBANESWAR: The counting of votes for the bypoll to the Brajrajnagar assembly constituency will be held on Friday. Counting process will be over by 3 pm and then result will be declared. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sushil Kumar Lohani told mediapersons that counting of votes will start at the Jharsuguda Engineering College at 8 am.
A total of 20 rounds of counting will be held, he added. "The counting of postal ballots will start at 8 am and of EVMs at 8:30 am. There will be 14 counting tables with three staff allotted to each table. There will be 60 counting personnel," he said.
The CEO said candidates will be allowed to allot agents to supervise the counting process. A counting assistant, a counting supervisor and a micro observer will be allotted to each table. Result will be announced after each round of counting.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of Brajrajnagar MLA Kishore Mohanty on December 30 last year due to cardiac arrest. The BJD has fielded his wife Alaka Mohanty. The Congress has fielded former minister Kishore Chandra Patel while the BJP candidate is Radharani Panda, who represented the constituency from 2014 to 2019.