Bhubaneswar: The bye-election to Jharsuguda assembly constituency will be held on May 10, as announced by the Election Commission of India today. Following the ECI’s announcement, Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal held a press meet in the afternoon and informed that over 2.21 lakh people are eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-poll.
The counting of votes will take place on May 13. “Altogether 1,10,320 men and 1,10,687 women are eligible to cast their votes in the by-poll. The voting will be conducted in 253 polling stations,” Dhal said. Proper arrangements for drinking water and first-aid will be made to avert any untoward incident on the polling day, owing to the heat during peak summer, the CEO said.
With the announcement of the by-poll, the model code of conduct came into force in the Jharsuguda district. The by-poll was necessitated after the murder of Minister Naba Kisore Das. Three major political parties- ruling BJD and opposition BJP and Congress – are in the process of selecting their nominees for the by-election.
Das breathed his last on January 29 evening, hours after he was shot by a policeman at Gandhi Chhak in Brajrajnagar area of Jharsuguda district, where he had gone to attend an event. The slain Minister’s daughter Dipali is in the race to get a ticket from the BJD.
BJP’s youth leader Tankadhar Tripathy has surfaced as the saffron party. Odisha Pradesh Congress president Sarat Pattanayak said a committee led by senior leader Santosh Singh Saluja has been formed to select a suitable candidate for the bypoll.
