Bhubaneswar: Counting of votes for 21 Parliamentary segments and 146 Assembly constituencies in Odisha began amid tight security on Thursday.
Trends are expected to emerge after about an hour.
Counting of votes is under way in 63 centres across the State, with over 6,7,00 polling staff and a huge number of police personnel on duty.
This time, on Election Commission’s permission, an additional 411 counting tables have been allotted to the State to speed up counting process. With addition of additional 411 tables, counting of votes will be conducted in a total of 2462 tables.
Odisha is likely see an average of 30 rounds of count per constituency. Patnagarh is likely maximum 49 rounds of counting while Sambalpur is all set record minimum 19 rounds of counting.
Hence, the result of Samablpur Assembly constituency is expected to be declared first.
Odisha voted for 21 Lok Sabha and 146 Assembly elections simultaneously in four phases on April 11, 28, 23 and 29. Counting of votes in the State will clock a longer duration than its national counterparts because of simultaneous counting for State Assembly elections along with Lok Sabha.
Counting of votes is now being taken up at 63 centres from 8 am across the State. All the 63 counting centres will have at least 14 tables – seven for Assembly and seven for Lok Sabha seats.
For each counting centre, a Counting Supervisor, a Counting Assistant and a Micro Observer have been appointed to ensure free and fair counting.
