Nuapada/Bhubaneswar: Amid tight security arrangements in western Odisha’s Nuapada district, over 2.53 lakh voters are set to cast their votes in the assembly bypoll Tuesday to decide the fate of 14 candidates.
The bypoll was necessitated following the death of sitting BJD MLA Rajendra Dholakia September 8.
Keeping in view the political sensitivity of the constituency and Maoist presence, particularly in Sunabeda wildlife sanctuary area, the Election Commission has deployed 14 companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) to ensure smooth voting, Nuapada SP Amritpal Singh said.
Apart from the central forces, 35 mobile patrolling parties and seven quick response teams (QRTs) have been stationed to address any irregularities, Singh added.
Erick Gilbert Jose, a commandant of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) in Nuapada, said, “We are well prepared for peaceful voting Tuesday. IAF helicopters have dropped polling officials and jawans in Naxal-hit areas. We have already dominated the LWE-hit areas and ensured that no naxals could reach polling stations.”
Nuapada district collector and district election officer Madusudan Dash said polling officials, EVMs and VVPATs have reached all the 358 polling booths, including 47 sensitive ones.
“Personnel and officials were air-dropped by IAF helicopters in eight highly sensitive booths in the wildlife sanctuary where LWE presence was reported earlier. Voting will start at 7 am after a mock poll at 5:30 am. While polling in 311 booths will continue until 5 pm, it will conclude at 4 PM in LWE-affected areas,” he added.
He said 2,53,624 voters, comprising 1,24,108 men and 1,29,495 women, are eligible to exercise their franchise.
Key candidates are BJD’s Snehangini Chhuria, BJP’s Jay Dholakia, Congress’ Ghasiram Majhi, and Samajwadi Party’s Ramakanta Hati.
Hemant Tandi of the Bahujan Mukti Party and Shukadhar Dandsena of Odisha Janata Dal are also in the fray.
Eight Independents — Ashraya Mahandan, Chakranta Jena, Bhuvan Lal Sahu, Kishore Kumar Bag, Nita Bag, Lakshmikant Tandi, Bhaktabandhu Dharua, and Lochan Majhi — are contesting as well.
Odisha Chief Electoral Officer R S Gopalan dismissed allegations that a truckload of EVMs was transported from Ganjam district to Nuapada on Sunday, calling them “false and baseless. EVMs are stored in secured warehouses in each district, and it is impossible to move them from elsewhere.”
In the 2024 elections, Rajendra Dholakia had won the Nuapada seat with 61,822 votes, followed by Independent candidate Ghasiram Majhi (now Congress nominee) with 50,941 votes.
BJP candidate Abhinandan Panda secured 44,814 votes, while Congress’s Sarat Pattnayak received 15,501 votes.
Nuapada recorded a 75.44 per cent voter turnout in that election.
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