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Bhubaneswar: Naveen Patnaik today appeared set to retain power for a fourth consecutive term in Odisha with BJD surging ahead in 112 of the 147 assembly seats with counting in progress.
Congress, which was leading in 22 seats an hour ago, was now leading in 18 seats followed by BJP in 12.
Patnaik, the Odisha Chief Minister, was leading in Hinjili by over 27,000 votes, while BJD's Mayadhar Jena was ahead of OPCC president Jaydev Jena by 16,357 votes.
Two ministers Usha Devi and Ramesh Majhi and BJP state President K V Singhdeo, who were trailing, were now leading.
Usha Devi was now leading by 16,232 votes over her nearest Congress rival Manoranjan Dyan Samantray and Ramesh Majhi by 6855 votes.
K V Singhdeo, facing strong opposition from BJD's Prakruti Devi, was back on the track with a lead of 793 votes.
Finance minister Prasanna Acharya, however, was trailing by 3001 votes behind his Congress rival Subal Sahu and school and mass education minister Rabi Narayan Nanda by 3800 votes behind his Congress rival Tara Prasad Bahinipati.
Also trailing were BJD leader and former minister A U Singhdeo (Balangir), former speaker and BJD leader Kishore Mohanty, Hema Gamang and Anup Sai, who quit Congress and joined BJD recently.
Congress leaders Lalatanedu Bidyadhar Mohapatra (Brahmagiri) and Chiranjibi Biswal, besides BJPLP leader Jay Narayan Mishra were also trailing. Congress chief whip and senior leader Prasad Harichandan was pushed to the third place in the Satyabadi seat behind BJD's R R Baliarsingh and independent candidate Uma Samantray.
BJP candidate Bijay Mohapatra was trailing by 3884 votes behind his BJD rival Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak at Mahakalpada, while Manmohan Samal, former state unit president of the party Manmohan Samal was also trailing at Chandabali.
Its candidate Dilip Ray was leading in Rourkela.
Ama Odisha Party leader Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, the son-in-law of Assam Governor J B Patnaik, was leading in Khandapada and Samata Kranti Dal nominee was leading in one seat, while independents were ahead in two places.
Among the winners were Debesh Acharya (BJD, Bargarh), Bhujbal Majhi (Cong, Dabugaon), Padmanabh Behera (BJD, Birmaharajpur), Bijayashree Routray (BJD, Basudevpur), Sameer Dash (BJD, Nimapara), Pramod Mallick (BJD, Niali), Bikram Arukh (BJD, Bhanjanagar), Radharani Panda (BJP, Brajarajnagar), Nrusingha Sahu (Parjang), Prafulla Majhi (Cong, Talsara), Naba Das (Cong, Jharsuguda), Subas Gond (BJD, Umerkote), Pravat Biswal (BJD, Cuttack-Choudwar), Braja Pradhan (BJD, Talcher), Ramesh Majhi (BJD, Jharigaon), Damburu Shisha (BJD, Chitrakonda), Golak Nayak (BJD, Udala), Duguni Kanhar (BJD, Phulbani), Jugal Patnaik (BJD, Bhadrak), Priyanshu Pradhan (BJD, Chhatrapur).
