Bhubaneswar: More women than men exercised their franchise in the by-poll to Dhamnagar Assembly constituency in Bhadrak district held on Thursday.
Out of the total 2,38,417 people eligible to cast their votes in the by-poll, 1,64,465 (68.98 per cent) electors exercised their franchise.
Of them, 74.08 per cent were women and 64.21 per cent were men.
However, the overall voting percentage fell to 68.98 per cent from 72.64 per cent in 2019, election office sources said.
After the close of polling, an estimated 66.63 per cent of the over 2.38 lakh voters were stated to have exercised their franchise. A large number of voters were still in queue at that time.
Odisha’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani claimed that Thursday’s polling was by and large peaceful even as the opposition BJP and the Congress alleged that the ruling BJD had resorted to “massive” distribution of cash to influence voters.
Meanwhile, the ECI has made elaborate security arrangements for the counting of votes on Sunday.
The sealed EVMs were kept with three layer security cover, an official said.
One platoon (30 personnel) of central armed force was deployed in the inner cordon of the store room, while another platoon of state armed police was also on duty there.
