Voting Tomorrow for Dhamnagar By-Poll

Bhadrak: Voting for the by-election to the Dhamnagar Assembly seat in Bhadrak district will be held tomorrow amid tight security.
The high voltage campaign for the by-election ended last evening with heavyweights of all parties tried their best to woo the voters.

Altogether five candidates including BJD’s Abanti Das, BJP’s Suryabansi Suraj and Baba Harekrushna Sethi of Congress are in the fray in the by-election for which polling will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the constituency where a total of 2,38,417 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise.

Briefing the media, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Sushil Kumar Lohani said that there will be a ban on opinion polls and exit polls during the polling for the bye-election. The ban will be in force from 7 am to 6.30 pm. TV channels are prohibited from broadcasting the results of exit or opinion polls during the period, he said.

There will also be a ban on the sale of liquor during this period. Canvassing for votes within a distance of one hundred meters of polling booth is prohibited. Violators can be arrested under Section 130 of the Representation of the People Act, the CEO added.

Four companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), including two from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and two from the Border Security Force (BSF), are being deployed for the by-election to ensure peaceful and fair polls. This apart, 10 platoons of Odisha police have also been deployed.

The results will be declared on November 6.

The by-election was necessitated following the demise of BJP sitting MLA Bishnu Sethi on September 19.