A cop stands guard as voters queue up to cast votes at a booth in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Elections in Bhubaneswar passed off peacefully amid strong police deployment. Apart from a stray incident in which Rs 21,000 was seized from Saheed Nagar, the polling went off smoothly in the city.

“Preventive measures taken by the police were fruitful and, as a result, polls in the city went off peacefully. One platoon of Central Police Reserve Force will be deployed to guard the strong room where electronic voting machines will be kept till the counting of votes on May 16,” said police commissioner R.P. Sharma.

The police seized cash of Rs 21,000 from Prakash Kumar Jena, a supporter of a major political party near booth No. 160 at Rashulgarh Sevashram under Bhubaneswar Central constituency this afternoon. The police said that Jena had carried the cash to distribute among the voters to influence them.

As many as 15 platoons of Central Reserve Police Force personnel were deployed in the city along with 21 platoons of Odisha State Armed Police.

The police had constituted 40 mobile patrolling teams in Bhubaneswar for smooth conduct of polls.

Similarly, 22 units of striking forces were constituted for the city for the polls. Bhubaneswar has 155 vulnerable polling booths out of a total of 1,004.

The police had initiated special precautionary measures for polling booths in Press Colony Upper Primary School, which had witnessed a clash between the supporters of Congress and the BJD during the civic polls in January. The clash, which had left five persons injured and an equal number of vehicles damaged, forced police to resort to mild lathicharge.

However, this time, the poll was peaceful at the locality.

Earlier, the police had seized more than 1,200 litres of liquor from the city and had registered more than 90 excise cases.

Apart from that, the police had booked hundreds of goons to ensure a free and fair poll.