BHUBANESWAR: Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said that  an average of nearly 39 percent of voters cast ballots in the by-election for the Dhamnagar (SC) Assembly constituency in the Bhadrak district of Odisha by 1.30 pm.

A total of 2,38,417 voters are entitled to cast ballots in the election, of whom 1,23,038 are men, 1,15,346 are women, and 33 are transgender.

At 252 polling places, voting began at 7 a.m. under heavy security and will last until 6 p.m. Voters were observed lining up so as to exercise their right to vote.

110 booths have been classified as sensitive based on field inputs. At these booths, the Election Commission Special has put in place unique security measures. According to the officials, 4 CAPF companies and 997 police officers have been deployed for the election.

For the byelection, five candidates are still in the running. Two independent candidates - Raju Das and Pabitra Mohan Das - are running for the MLA seat that became available with the passing of BJP MLA Bishnu Sethi, in addition to BJD's Abanti Das, the BJP's Suryabanshi Suraj, and the Congress' Baba Harekrushna Sethi.

During the by-election, a poll worker assigned to booth 139 during the election passed away on Thursday while receiving medical care at Cuttack SCB.

Workers for the BJP in Dhamnagar claim that BJD members rigged booths 22 and 23 at Khalagadia School, which is part of Katasahi Panchayat. Police have arrived to take control of the situation.

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