The counting of votes for the Nuapada Assembly by-election began at 8 am on Friday at the Nuapada National College counting centre, which has been secured with a three-tier security system. Election officials confirmed that 26 rounds of counting will be conducted, with 14 counting tables set up to process results from 358 polling booths.

The by-election witnessed a high voter turnout of over 83%, one of the highest recorded in the region. A total of 14 candidates are in the fray, though the contest is primarily triangular between the BJP, BJD, and Congress.

Jay Dholakia Maintains Early Lead

As per the latest updates:

After the first round, BJP candidate Jay Dholakia took an early lead.

After the second round, his margin increased to 10,436 votes.

By the fifth round, Dholakia further

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