Bijepur Byelection: Security Tightened For D-Day

Bargarh: After campaigning for the February 24 byelection to Bijepur Assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district ended on Thursday evening, deployment of polling parties begun on Friday.

The polling parties, which arrived in Bijepur on Thursday, are heading for their respective booths with Electronic Voting Machine (EVM), Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and other equipment, including ballot unit and control unit, to be used in the elections, official sources said. For the first time, VVPAT, a printer in which the name of the voter and the party s/he has voted for will be displayed within 7 seconds of voting, will be used in the Bijepur by-poll.

Each polling party has a presiding officer, four polling officials and one policeman.

According to the voters’ list, a maximum of 2,21,144 voters will exercise their franchise.

Talking to mediapersons, Bargarh Collector Yamini Sarangi said as against 270 polling booths set up in Bijepur constituency in the Assembly elections in 2014, 281 polling booths have been set up for the byelection.

“Of the 281 booths, 155 booths have been identified as sensitive. Besides, CCTV cameras have been put up in 20 booths while 40 booths will have micro observers from the Centre,” she said, adding that all arrangements have been made as per the directive of the poll observes.

Bargarh sub-collector and returning officer Tapiram Majhi said the people of Bijepur constituency have been briefed in detail about the manner in which they would exercise their democratic right.

Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar said his office has received 28 complaints from different political parties after enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct. Of these, action taken report has been sought in some cases.

Stating that arrangements have been made to photograph and videograph the poll proceedings in each booth, Kumar said police would seal the border areas of Bijepur constituency to prevent any illegal movement.

The CEO said efforts are on to engage more executive magistrates to oversee the law and order situation during the polling.

On security arrangements, the CEO said he had a discussion with the Director General of Police (DGP) and asked him to increase the number of mobile party in Bijepur for free and fair election and engage more police officers from the neighbouring districts.

“I have also asked the DGP to tighten security in Bijepur in the next 48 hours, give necessary instructions to the police to raid the hotels and guest houses in Bargarh district, keep a close watch on the vehicular movement between Bargarh and Chhattisgarh along the border areas, take immediate action against illegal liquor trade and money transactions, provide security all candidates contesting the elections,” Kumar informed.

Asked about the attack on the brother of Minister Sushant Singh, the CEO made it clear the incident will have no effect on the byelection as it has taken place outside the Bijepur constituency area.

He called on the people to exercise their franchise in favour of the candidate of their choice.

Briefing media persons at the district police headquarters, Bargarh SP Jai Narayan Pankaj said 12 flying squads have been formed. The squads will rush to the concerned booths if it receives any information relating to rigging and law and order. “Six check posts have also been set up in the border areas where vehicles coming from outside are not allowed to enter Bijepur constituency,” he added.

Talking about security arrangements, Pankaj said 5 platoons of CRPF and BSF jawans and 36 platoons of Odisha State Armed Police (OSAP) force have been deployed in Bijepur while one company of CRPF personnel is in charge of guarding the EVM and VVPAT machines. Besides, 30 Inspectors, 150 Sub Inspectors and 40 mobile parties have been pressed into service.

Seeking cooperation of the people for free and fair elections, the SP requested them to inform the police if any illegal activities come to their notice.

A series of violent incidents, including a murderous attack on the brother of Labour Minister Sushant Singh on Thursday late night, has heightened the security perception ahead of the byelection, which was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA Subala Sahu in August.

Subala’s wife Rita is in the fray on a BJD ticket, locking horns with BJP’s Ashok Panigrahi and Congress’ Pranaya Sahu.

Going by the Election Commission’s notification, polling would begin from 8 am to 5 pm on February 24 while counting of votes and announcement of results will be made on on February 28.

The election process would be completed by March 3.