Anxious moments ahead of counting of votes in Sundargarh district

ROURKELA: Amid Modi wave across the country and BJP confident of victory, the candidates in Sundargarh Parliamentary Constituency (PC) and seven Assembly segments are spending anxious moments, as the counting date nears.BJP insiders said apart from Modi wave, the party’s Sundargarh Lok Sabha nominee Jual Oram’s vote base too will work magic. The Union Minister’s victory margin is likely to go beyond 50,000 votes compared to the 2014 winning lead, when he defeated BJD’s Dilip Tirkey by 18,900 votes. Oram had polled about 3.4 lakh votes. Oram said his strategy this time was to increase the vote share by a lakh.

Jual’s Congress rival and Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey too is hoping for victory with the hope of consolidating minority vote, particularly the dominant Christian community, in his favour. During the elections, Congress was faced with serious infighting or presence of rebel candidates in all seven Assembly Constituencies which surely are no good signs for Congress or George.

BJD nominee of Sundargarh Parliamentary Constituency Sunita Biswal, who is also the daughter of former  chief minister Hemanand Biswal, too hopes for a victory riding on the belief of cornering majority votes of another dominant community, the Bhuiyan. Though the Bhuiyans are BJD’s vote bank, local BJD leaders are not so convinced of her victory. Political observers said Rourkela Development Authority Chairman and BJD nominee Sarada Prasad Nayak looks poised for comfortable victory from Rourkela Assembly segment. In Raghunathpali segment, BJD’s sitting MLA Subrat Tarai faces close fight from party’s rebel and Congress nominee Prashant Sethi and BJP’s JB Behera.

Security in place for counting
Puri: Elaborate preparations are underway for counting of votes in Kendriya Vidyalaya where the EVMs and VVPATs are stored in 12 strong rooms. The counting agent passes on recommendation of respective candidates for Assembly and Parliament were being issued by their returning officers. In Puri, four Assembly segments Pipili, Satyabadi, Puri Sadar and Brahmagiri of Puri Parliamentary seats and Nimapara and Kakatpur belonging to Jagatsinghpur Parliamentary seat would be counted in seven tables at a time under the supervision of eight observers. After counting of total votes, 25 pc of EVMs of each segment would be tallied with the VVPAT slips, said Collector Balwant Singh. Besides tight security, proper lighting arrangements with undisrupted  supply of power have also been made.