Padampur By-Election In Odisha; 46.96% Polling Till 1 PM

Bargarh: Padampur Assembly constituency in Odisha, where voting is underway for the by-election on Monday, saw 46.96 per cent voter turnout by 1 pm, according to Chief Election Officer (CEO) Sushil Kumar Lohani.

The Assembly constituency in Bargarh district had polled 8.5 per cent votes by 9 am and 29.73 per cent by 11 am.

Voting, which began at 7 am, was going on smoothly at 319 booths and no untoward incident was reported so far. Voting will continue till 4 pm, the CEO said.

Over 2.57 lakh voters, including 12 members of the transgender community, are eligible to exercise their franchise in the bypoll.

The voters who reach their respective polling booths before 4 pm will be allowed to exercise their franchise after the scheduled time, he said. Such voters will be provided with cheats which they will produce before the polling officials to cast votes.

A total of 11 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been replaced so far after they developed glitches, Lohani.

Notably, voting was disrupted at Booth No 209 at Rajabaoda Sambar in Padampur as an EVM developed a technical snag a few minutes after polling started this morning, sources said.

Help desks being operated by BLOs are providing required help and information to voters. Volunteers have been engaged to take handicapped and elderly voters to booths.

At least 1,400 police personnel and nine companies of central paramilitary forces have been deployed to ensure smooth voting, he added.

BJD nominee Barsha Singh Bariha, BJP candidate Pradip Purohit and Congress’ Satya Bhusan Sahu cast their votes this morning.

The bypoll was necessitated following the demise of sitting BJD MLA Bijay Ranjan Singh Bariha, father of the ruling party candidate.