 "Kandhamal bypoll sees 62.71 % voter turnout")
"The exact percentage of polling will be known only after receiving the information from the interior parts of the district," said N Thirumala Naik, district collector and returning officer of Kandhamal.
In the last general election held in April, the parliamentary constituency witnessed around 73 percent polling. Total number of voters of Kandhamal Lok Sabha seat, which is spread over four districts-Ganjam, Kandhamal, Boudh and Nayagarh, is 1.1 million. The counting of the votes will be held on October 19. A total of seven candidates are testing their popularity this time. Analysts and observers said there will be a strong contest between Pratyusha Rajeshwari Singh, widow of deceased BJD MP and Rudhramadhab Ray, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate and ex-MP, who successfully contested from the seat in 2009 election on BJD ticket. Stakes are also high for Congress candidate Abhimanyu Behera as the party had secured second position in last April election.
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Pratyusha's late husband had won the seat with a margin of 1.81 lakh votes.
The parliamentary constituency comprises of seven assembly segments, Baliguda, G.Udayagiri and Phulbani in Kandhamal district, Boudh and Kantamal in Boudh district, Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district and Daspalla in Nayagarh district.
In most of the places, the polling finished at around 4 pm, the scheduled time, while in some places it was extended upto 5.30 pm as several voters turned up at the booths late in the afternoon. In Phulbani town, polling was disrupted for about half an hour due to heavy rains. As some pockets of the constituency are Maoist-infested, extra care was taken to provide security at polling booths with deployment of 12 companies of security forces along with several hundred police personnel. Out of total 1497 booths in the constituency, security personnel from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Border Security Force (BSF) were deployed at 530 sensitive booths for ensuring free and fair polling.
"There was no untoward incident reported from anywhere. The bypoll was by and large peaceful," said K V Singh, superintendent of police, Kandhamal. All the district administrations coming under Kandhamal seat had organised around 25 model booths by providing basic facilities such as drinking water and toilets in order to attract the voters, said Sumanta Kar, deputy collector, Kandhamal.
Meanwhile, opposition parties, the Congress and BJP alleged deliberate power cuts in some areas of the Kandhamal constituency by government authorities during last 48 hours to enable the ruling BJD leaders to distribute freebies to influence the voters under the cover of darkness. But the allegation was strongly refuted by state energy minister, Pranab Prakash Das.