Bhubaneshwar: The ruling BJD today marched ahead of BJP establishing a huge margin in the by-election for Bijepur Assembly seat in Odisha as per latest trends, poll officials said.

BJD nominee Rita Sahu is leading by a margin of 22,739 votes over her nearest BJP candidate Ashok Panigrahi after ten rounds of counting of votes, they said.

While Rita Sahu polled 54,104 votes, Panigrahi got 31,365 votes at the end of ten rounds. Congress nominee Pranaya Sahu has so far got 2,788 votes.

The by-poll for Bijepur Assembly seat was held on February 24.

The by-poll was necessitated due to the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu in August, 2017.