Bhubaneswar, Jan 25: By-election to Pipili Assembly constituency will be conducted soon and the date is going to be declared very shortly, informed State Election Officer Sushil Lohani on Monday.

According to Lohani, Chief Election Commission has given green signal to conduct election for Pipili Assembly constituency in the state. The electoral process will be executed adhering to Covid guidelines, he said.

All standard operation procedures of Covid-19 will be followed strictly during the election procedure and a polling booth will be formed for each 1000 voters.

Green signal of the state election officer over Pipili by-election has triggered political chaos among the three major political parties in Odisha – BJD, Congress and BJP.

As of now no party has announced its candidate for the seat.  In the mean time, Pratibha Maharathi, wife of late BJD MLA Pradip Maharathi has expressed her interest for BJD candidature.

However, she said BJD Supreme Naveen Patnaik’s decision is final.

Notably, Pipili MLA Pradip Maharathi succumbed to post Covid complicacies on October 4 last year.