Odisha Assembly Election Result 2019 LIVE Updates: Naveen Patnaik seeks 5th term as counting begins

Live updates of the 2019 Odisha Assembly election result. Counting of votes will happen today.

Update: Early trends indicate that the BJD has taken a lead in two seats while Congress is leading in one seat in Odisha.
Update: Early trends indicate that the BJD has taken lead in one assembly constituency.
Counting being held at 63 different centres across the state

Counting of votes for the 21 Lok Sabha seats and 146 Assembly segments in Odisha is being held at 63 different centres across the state amidst tight security.

Polling was held in 21 Lok Sabha seats and 146 Assembly segments in four different phases on April 11, 18, 23 and 29.

Each counting hall will have at least seven tables each for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats and three officials including a supervisor, a counting assistant and a micro observer will be engaged for each table to ensure free and fair counting of votes. (PTI)
Lok Sabha election counting update: Meanwhile, NDA is leading in most of the early trends coming from Maharashtra, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Karnataka.
The voting this time around in the state was marked by violence in some places.

BJD candidate Pradeep Maharathy was jailed for attacking an EC flying squad, while BJP candidate from Puri assembly constituency, Om Prakash Mishra, faced arrest for destroying EVMs during the third phase of polling.

On April 19, BJP candidate from Saroda assembly seat, Nilamani Bisoi was arrested for destroying an EVM machine at a booth in Renti village.
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BJD is perhaps the only party whose tally has been increasing in every successive election, both in terms of seats and the vote share.
For BJD, alarm bells started ringing after 2017 Panchayat polls

For Patnaik and BJD, the alarm bells started ringing after the 2017 Panchayat elections when the BJP had managed to win 306 of the 853 zilla parishad seats.

BJD had managed to retain its hold by winning 460 seats, but had been reduced to that number from 651 in 2012. The Congress, meanwhile, was a distant third at 66 seats.
In 2009, when the BJP and BJD fought separately for the first time after Patnaik had called off their decade-long alliance, the BJP had managed to win only six assembly seats and zero Lok Sabha seats.

BJD had won 14 Lok Sabha seats and 103 assembly seats while the Congress had managed to win 27 assembly seats and six Parliamentary seats.
Rally count: PM Modi addressed 10 rallies in Odisha, Rahul Gandhi five

Several top leaders from the BJP, including PM Modi, Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Smriti Irani campaigned in Odisha during the polls.

PM Modi addressed 10 rallies in the state and also did a roadshow, while Amit Shah took part in six.

Congress, the main Opposition party in Odisha, conducted a toned-down campaign. Congress President Rahul Gandhi conducted five rallies in the state, and the state Congress unit was reportedly unhappy with the Congress chief for ignoring the state.
Many firsts for Naveen Patnaik this election season

There were many firsts for Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik this time around: he addressed the most number of rallies at 100, the highest for him in any election.

Political observers and reports have suggested that this was to counter rumors about his ill-health.

This was also the first election when he contested from two seats: Hinjili, his home turf in southern part of the state, and Bijepur, in western Odisha, where the BJD's influence is reported to have waned at the cost of BJP's rise in the region.
Exit polls released on May 19 after the seventh and final phase of the general elections concluded have shown significant gains for the BJP in the state. While the exit polls have predicted a fifth term for Patnaik, they have also suggested an increase in BJP's Assembly seats from 10 in 2014, to around 20-40 this time.
BJD supremo and four-time Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik is hoping to repeat his 2014 performance, when his party won 20 Lok Sabha seats and 117 assembly seats in the state.
The state election is being considered as a triangular contest between the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
The half-way mark or the 'magic number' for the Odisha Assembly is 73. Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha constituencies.
While the Odisha Legislative Assembly consists of 147 seats, election for the Patkura Assembly constituency was postponed by the Election Commission of India (EC) in the view of destruction caused by Cyclone Fani in April.
Odisha voted simultaneously in teh 2019 Lok Sabha election and the Legislative Assembly polls in four phases. Phase 1 was held on April 11, Phase 2 on April 18, Phase 3 on April 23 and Phase 4 on April 29.
Good morning! Welcome to Moneycontrol's LIVE coverage of the Odisha Assembly election results 2019. Counting of votes in the state will happen today.