Bijepur by-election: Polling concludes amid tight security

Sambad English Bureau Published On : Feb 24, 2018 at 10:15 AM Updated On : Feb 24, 2018 at 9:37 PM

Bargarh: Voting for by-election to the Bijepur assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district started at 8 am today amid tight security at 281 polling booths. The process continued till 5 pm.

About 2,21,144 voters were slated to exercise their franchise which will decide the fate of 13 candidates including BJD’s Rita Sahu, BJP’s Ashok Panigrahi and Congress’ Pranaya Sahu.

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While 155 booths were identified as ‘sensitive’, a total of 36 platoons of police force and five companies of central paramilitary force were deployed to ensure smooth conduct of the bypoll.

Interruption in polling was reported at some booths as EVM and VVPAT machines developed technical glitches there. Worth mentioning, VVPAT machines were being used in the state for the first time for voting.

The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on February 28.

Notably, death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu, husband of Rita sahu, in August last year had necessitated the Bijepur bypoll.