Bhubaneswar: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday exuded confidence that his party, the BJD, would win the Bijepur bypoll by a good margin.
"I expect our candidate to win with a very handsome margin," Naveen told reporters on his return from New Delhi.
A record 82 per cent voters had exercised their franchise at Bijepur during their polling held on Saturday.
With such a high voter turn out, all the major political parties are expecting the result to go in their favour. The results of the bypoll will be announced on February 28.
All parties carried out a high-voltage campaign ahead of the election day with this being considered the acid test ahead of the 2019 general elections.
All eyes are now set on the voting machines in which the fate of the contestants are sealed.
The machines have been locked in the strong room and are being guarded by armed security men round the clock, said Bargarh collector Yamini Sarangi, who is the district returning officer.
Election observer Abhishek Chandra said the election had been conducted without any hitch and ruled out a repoll in any of the polling booths.
"We have conducted checks in presence of representatives of the political parties before sealing the voting machines," he said.
While the political parties are now waiting for the bypoll results to be announced, blame game has also begun between the two political rivals - the BJD and the BJP - over a series of pre-poll violence.
"Be it the shoe attack on chief minister Naveen Patnaik or attack on labour minister Susanta Singh's brother, all were part of a conspiracy by the BJP," said BJD spokesperson Pratap Deb on Sunday.
"Whenever Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan has threatened about violence, exactly the same thing has happened the next day," said Deb.
Denying such accusations, BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said it had become the BJD's habit to blame the BJP for everything.
"The BJD is behind all the political violence as our party activists and leaders were attacked time and again. The shoe attack was done by the BJD to gain people's sympathy," said Harichandan.
