Campaign Ends; Odisha’s Pipili Geared Up For Sept 30 Byelections

Puri: While hectic political campaigning for Pipili byelections scheduled for September 30 comes to an end on Monday, the government machinery made elaborate arrangements to deploy polling personnel with required material to 348 voting booths in three phases.

The district authorities have set ten counters to disperse polling material such as EVMs, ballot papers and other equipment for the smooth conduct of polls while ensuring their delivery on a single window method. The distribution of material will be done in three schedules  – 6 am to 10 am, 10 am to 1 pm and 1 pm to 4 pm – ensuring Covid guidelines.

According to the district authorities, of the 348 polling booths in the constituency, 102 have been identified as most sensitive and 73 sensitive. Web-casting would be done in 175 booths and micro observers would be deployed in 23 booths whereas video recording would be done in 12 booths.

District Collector Samartha Verma who has been monitoring the poll arrangements has drafted about 2000 polling personnel in addition to deploying 500 vehicles for the smooth conduct of elections. At least five persons including securitymen would be posted to each booth, he said. There would be 1983 security personnel in addition to 32 mobile teams altogether.

Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel conducted flag marches in Delang and Pipili areas, indicated Superintendent of Police Kanwar Bishal Singh.

While campaigning by political parties remained, by and large, peaceful except a few stray incidents, Chief Electoral Officer Sushil Kumar Lohani expressed satisfaction over the arrangements with top officials through a video conferencing Monday morning. Additional Collector Pradeep Sahu, DRDA project director Jyothi Shankar Mohapatra, deputy collector Jitendra Kumar Patra and other nodal officers were among those who attended the conference.

At least 2,29, 998 electorate are expected to decide the fate of 10 candidates on September 30. Prominently, Biju Janata Dal’s Rudra Pratap Maharathy, Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ashrit Pattanayak and Congress’ Bishwokeshan Harichandan Mohapatra who are in the fray held several rallies and door-to-door campaigns to woo their voters. The votes will be counted on October 3.

The byelections were necessitated by the death of legislator Pradeep Maharathy. The bypoll was rescheduled after the death of a Congress nominee earlier this year.