Odisha: 66.63 pc voting recorded in Dhamnagar bypoll

Bhubaneswar: Around 66 per cent polling was registered for the by-election to Dhamnagar Assembly constituency in Bhadrak district of Odisha today.

As per the estimation, 66.63 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the Dhamnagar bypoll, said the Election Commissioner of India after completion of the polling.

As many as 2,38,417 voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the by-election. Of the total voters, 1,23,038 were male, 1,15,346 female and 33 transgenders, officials said.

The voting started at 7 am under tight security at 252 polling booths and continued till 6 pm.

The Election Commission made special security arrangements at 110 booths which were earlier identified as sensitive.  A total of 997 police personnel and four companies of CAPF were deployed for the bypoll. Web casting was done in 126 booths, officials added.

The polling would decide the fate of five candidates, including BJD’s Abanti Das, BJP’s Suryabanshi Suraj and Congress’ Baba Harekrushna Sethi.

The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of sitting MLA Bishnu Sethi. The BJP fielded Sethi’s son Suryabanshi Suraj Sthitaprajna as its candidate for the bypoll.

Former MLA Raju Das fought the by-election as an independent candidate after the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) denied him ticket.

The counting of votes will be done on November 6.