The final voter turnout for the by-election to the Bijepur Assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district was 79.17 per cent, state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S K Lohani said.

The bypoll in Bijepur assembly seat in Bargarh district was necessitated after BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik resigned from the seat and retained the Hinjili assembly segment in Ganjam district. Patnaik had won two seats in the last assembly elections.

Election officials on Monday had said that an estimated 72 per cent of the over 2.32 lakh voters had exercised their franchise in the by-election but the final voting percentage would go up.

BJD’s Rita Sahu, BJP’s SanatGadtia and Congress’ Dillip Panda are in the fray, among a dozen of candidates.

A total of 2,32,264 voters comprising 1,12,114 women, 1,20,135 men and 10 transgenders are expected to decide fate of the candidates.Special provisions have been made for 2,750 Divyang voters to exercise their franchise.

As many as 33 platoon of police force, five company CRPF and senior police personnel were deployed for peaceful and incident-free by-election.

The BJP has fielded Sanat Gartia as its candidate for the polls. Gartia had unsuccessfully contested the Assembly polls held earlier this year as a BJP nominee from Bijepur but lost to BJD president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He lost to Patnaik by a margin of 57,122 votes in the assembly polls held along with the Lok Sabha elections.

BJD has named Rita Sahu as its candidate for the by-election, Congress has announced the name of Dillip Kumar Panda.Speaking to media after casting his vote, Panda said, “Party has confidence in me and I am working hard to win. But irrespective of the result, I will continue to stand by the people. I hope voters turn out to select the appropriate candidate to save democracy.”