Polling in Dhamnagar one of the lowest

BHUBANESWAR: An estimated 68.98 per cent voters exercised their franchise in Dhamnager Assembly constituency on Thursday which is considered low for a bypoll. Dhamnagar constituency has a history of high polling. The voter turnout in Dhamnagar is 3.5 per cent less than 72.64 per cent polling recorded in the segment in 2019 elections. The constituency had recorded 73.46 percent in 2014 elections.

The final figure of polling announced by the Election Commission of India (ECI) is marginally higher than the tentative figure of 66.63 percent polling calculated on Thursday at the end of voting.  The comparatively low polling has perplexed observers as well as the political parties. The campaign was high pitch and all the four main contenders, BJD, BJP, Congress and rebel BJD candidate, had left nothing to chance. Leaders from both the BJD and BJP camps maintained that the polling should have been higher in view of the voter mobilisation.

But going by the voters’ behaviour in the last three elections, there was close contest between the BJD and BJP irrespective of the winner. In the last three elections, BJD won from this seat twice in 2009 and 2014 while the seat went to BJP in 2019.

According to the ECI, out of the 2,38,417 voters in the constituency, a total of 1,64,465, including 85,452 women, 79,011 men and two members of the third sex exercised their franchise in the by-election. Polling for by-election, which was held on Thursday amid tight security, remained largely peaceful barring some stray incidents.

Chief electoral officer SK Lohani told mediapersons that elaborate arrangements and tight security measures have been undertaken to ensure the safety of electronic voting machines (EVMs) and smooth counting of votes on November 6.