Bhubaneswar, Nov 30 (IANS): Voting began for the Umerkote assembly seat in Odisha's Nabarangpur district Wednesday amid tight security, police said.

"Polling started at 8 a.m. and will close at 4 p.m. There have been no reports of any untoward incident so far from any part of the constituency. It was going on peacefully," district Superintendent of Police Niti Shekhar told IANS.

People were standing outside the polling centres minutes before the polling started, he said.

The by-election for the Umerkote assembly seat, reserved for Scheduled Tribes, has been necessitated after the killing of Biju Janana Dal (BJD) member Jagabandhu Majhi by gunmen Sep 24.

The tribal constituency is likely to witness a triangular contest between Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Dharmu Gond, Congress's Jatindranath Gond and ruling BJD's Subash Gond.

The constituency has 1,65,037 eligible voters. Seventy of the total 162 booths were declared sensitive and 67 hyper-sensitive. Elaborate security arrangements have been made for peaceful poll, the official added.