Odisha police on Monday seized around Rs 50 lakh of unaccounted cash near Tarakaja Chhak under Pipili police station in Puri district. The Pipili Assembly constituency is going to witness a bypoll on April 17.

Police detained two persons in connection with the incident and seized a motorcycle. Sources said during routine check on Monday afternoon near the Pipili check gate, police asked two persons riding a motorcycle to stop. But instead of stopping they sped away. Police chased them and seized the money from their possession. A ruling Biju Janata Dal delegation met the chief electoral officer and lodged a complaint about attempts by rival parties to influence voters by adopting unfair means.

In a memorandum to the chief electoral officer Sushil Kumar Lohani, the BJD said, “Rs 50 lakh has been seized from two BJP leaders in Pipili today. Due to the growing fear within BJP of the losing the Pipili bypoll, the BJP has now been pumping in huge amounts of money in a bid to influence the Pipili-bypoll.”

Demanding police patrolling and surveillance teams to be increased to ensure that the BJP does not become successful in its illegal activities of pumping money into the election, the party said, “We demand that strict investigation must be undertaken to trace these illegal funds and bring all those guilty to justice.”

BJP spokesperson Lekhashree Samantasinghar told The Telegraph, “These allegations are totally false, baseless and fabricated one. The ruling party is in fear of losing the election and that’s the reasons they resort to such low level tactics. However, they will not be successful. We will ready for any kind of probe. People are with us.”

Pipili has been a politically volatile constituency prone to violence.

The byelection is being held to fill the vacancy caused by the death of BJD veteran Pradeep Maharathy who represented the constituency seven times.

His son Rudra Pratap Maharathy is the BJD candidate this time. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik is likely campaign for his son.

While retaining the seat is a prestige issue for the BJD, rival BJP is trying its best to snatch the seat away from the ruling party. The Congress, too, is a factor in this battle.