BHUBANESWAR: Polling in the byelection to the Pipili assembly constituency has picked up momentum as the day progressed with 45.32 percent turnout by 1pm.
A voter turnout of only 7.8 percent was reported in the first two hours upto 9am. It is expected that polling will increase by 3pm as voters have started reaching the polling stations in large numbers. So far, polling has been peaceful in the constituency. No incident has been reported except technical glitches in EVMs which delayed polling in some booths.
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Polling in booth number 154 at Kaushalyapur, 158 at Pubar, 161 at Laxminarayanpur, 167 at Kunjar, 169 at Siula and 173 at Binayakpur were delayed due to a technical glitch in the electronic voting machines (EVM). However, polling has started in these booths.
The bypoll was necessitated due to the death of BJD sitting MLA Pradeep Maharathy on October 19, 2020. While Maharathy’s son Rudra Pratap Maharathy has been fielded by the ruling BJD, the BJP has nominated Ashrit Pattanayak and the Congress has fielded Biswakeshan Harichandan Mohapatra.