Bhubaneswar: Campaigning for the bypoll to the Jharsuguda Assembly constituency came to an end at 6 PM today. Voting for the bypoll is all set to take place on May 10 and the counting of votes will take place on May 13.
Polling of votes will begin at 7.00 AM on May 10 and close at 6.00 PM.
On the final day of the campaigning, BJD candidate Dipali Das, BJP’s Tankadhar Tripathy, and Congress’ Tarun Pandey pulled out all the stops to attract the voter and vote in their favour.
The industrial district of Jharsuguda witnessed high voltage campaigns with BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik along with several Ministers, MLAs, and senior party leaders hitting the campaign trail for Dipali Das, while Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Bishweswar Tudu, BJP vice-president Baijayant Panda, state BJP chief Manmohan Samal, BJP MPs, MLAs, and senior leaders rallying for BJP candidate Tankadhar Tripathy.
Odisha Pradesh Congress president Sarat Pattanayak and several other party leaders campaigned for Tarun Pandey.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission has made all arrangements for the smooth conduct of the by-election.
Speaking to media persons about the preparedness, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha, Nikunja Bihari Dhal, said that polling parties, EVMs, election materials, security arrangements – all are in place for the bypoll.
Dhal informed that voting is going to be held in 253 booths in 197 locations. As many as 2,21,719 voters consisting of 1,10,619 males, 1,11,037 females, and 63 transgenders will exercise their franchise in the by-election.
Based on field inputs, 116 booths have been identified as critical booths in 69 locations. Special arrangements have been done for these booths, he said.
In all the 253 booths, webcasting has been planned. Apart from that, 69 micro-observers will be deployed and extra Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) deployment will be done in appropriate locations, he said.
The CEO informed that a total of 1,814 police personnel, including 155 police officers, 17 platoons of armed police, 323 constables and 205 home guards, and seven companies of CAPF are being deployed for the polling.
As a precautionary measure, 171 licensed arms have been deposited in the concerned police stations. About 1,900 persons have been booked under preventive sections of Cr.PC while 112 non-bailable warrants have been executed, Dhal added.
