By Our Correspondent
PURI/BHUBANESWAR: Puri Collector Samartha Verma flanked by SP K Vishal Singh have jointly held a review meeting with officials of District Administration and as well s District Police ahead of the September 30 rescheduled By polls for Pipili Assembly seat, which lying vacant since the death of BJD stalwart Pradeep Maharathy.Both Collector Verma and SP Singh also visited several sensitive booths under the Assembly seat and reviewed law and order situation.
As many as 3 Assembly seats including 2 in West Bengal and 1 in Odisha’s Pipili will goes for polls on September 30 and counting will be done on October 3 as October 5 was the last date before which election shall be completed.
There are 10 candidates in the fray for the Pipili Assembly by-election, scheduled for September 30, and 2, 29,998 voters in the constituency will decide the fate of these candidates. The fight shall be mainly between Rudrapratap Maharathy, the BJD candidate who is the son of late Pradeep Maharathy and Ashrit Pattnayk, the BJP nominee.
In 2014 Assembly election, out of 1,60,995 votes polled, BJD candidate Pradeep Maharathy had won the poll by bagging 82,471 votes, followed by the Congress candidate and the former MLA Judhistir Samantray who had secured 49,087 votes.
Congress dissident candidate Ashrit had contested as Independent and bagged 17,780 votes. The BJP had bagged only 7,724 votes. Due to infighting in the party, the Congress vote had got divided, helping the BJD to win.
The situation became different in 2019 general election. The BJD repeated Maharathy as its candidate who won the election by securing 88,518 votes out of 1, 74, 875 votes polled. Ashrit, the former Independent candidate, however, was fielded as the BJP candidate and had bagged 72,731 votes to finish second. Surprisingly, Congress leader, Judhistir Samantray, refused to contest the poll. Congress put a new candidate, Ajit Mangaraj, in fray who secured 9,830 votes only. The Congress party which had bagged 49,087 votes in 2014 poll had to be satisfied with 9,830 votes in 2019 while the BJP increased its voting strength significantly from 7,724 in 2014 to 72,731 in 2019 election.
