Bijepur bypoll: Polling begins amid tight security

Bargarh: Casting of votes for bypoll to the Bijepur Assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district began at 7 am amid tight security today.

As many as 2,32,264 voters will exercise their franchise through 285 polling stations. A total of 129 polling stations have been identified as critical and six are vulnerable. While CCTV cameras have been installed in 14 polling booths, the process would be videographed at 16 booths in the constituency. Similarly, webcasting is being done from 28 polling booths and micro-observers have been deployed at 77 booths.

As a part of security measures, 33 platoons of police force, three companies of CRPF, 113 assistant sub-inspectors, 75 sub-inspectors, seven DSPs and one ASP have been deployed in the constituency.

The result of the bypoll, which is scheduled to be declared on October 24, will decide the fate of the candidates, including BJD’s Rita Sahu, BJP’s Sanat Kumar Gartia and Congress nominee Dillip Kumar Panda. The bypoll was necessitated after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated Bijepur and retained the Hinjili seat after winning from both the constituencies in the Assembly Elections.