Voters on Tuesday turned up to vote in large numbers in the byelection to two Assembly seats in Odisha despite the pandemic.
While the voter turnout exceeded last election’s in Balasore, it was on the marginally lower side in Tirtol.
According to the Chief Electoral Office, a 71% voter turnout was registered in Balasore, whereas it was 70.88% in the 2019 Assembly election. In Tirtol, 69.9% voters came to exercise their franchise as against 73% in the previous polls.
“The bypoll passed off peacefully without any major incident of disturbance. Whenever any discrepancy was brought to our notice during the day, we took prompt action to rectify it,” said Chief Electoral Officer Sushil Kumar Lohani.
Director General of Police Abhay too approached police forces for peaceful bypoll to Balasore and Tirtol Assembly constituencies.
The bypolls were necessitated following death of former Balasore MLA and BJP leader Madan Mohan Dutta and former Tirtol MLA and veteran BJD leader Bishnu Charan Das. While the BJD seemed to be confident of winning the Tirtol seat by a big margin, the BJP is trying hard to retain Balasore. Both the BJD and the BJP have fielded sons of the deceased leaders.
