Candidates of the three major political parties, the BJD, the BJP and the Congress, on Monday filed their nomination papers to fight the by-election to be held for the Bijepur Assembly seat on October 21.
BJD candidate Rita Sahu, Congress’ Dillip Kumar Panda and BJP’s
S Sanat Gartia submitted the nomination papers before the Returning Officer at the Sub-Collector’s office at Padampur in Bargarh district.
The candidates came in huge rallies at different times and filed papers in presence of their proposers. Adequate security arrangement had been made for smooth filing of nominations.
According to the schedule, scrutiny of nominations papers will be held on October 1 and last date of withdrawal of candidature is October 3. Counting of votes and declaration of result will be held on October 24. The by-poll has been necessitated in Bijepur after Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik vacated the seat and retained his old Hinjili constituency in Ganjam district. He had won from both the seats in the Assembly elections held in April this year. As many as 2,32,005 voters in Bijepur comprising 1,19,916 males, 1,12,074 females and 15 third gender voters are eligible to cast their votes at a total of 285 polling booths. The by-poll is all set to witness a triangular contest.