Samikhsya Burea
Amid tight security polling commenced at 0700 hours for the fourth and final phase elections in Odisha to six Lok Sabha and 41 Assembly seats in Odisha to seal the fate of 388 candidates.
Chief Electoral Office (CEO) sources here said over 9 per cent voting has been reported by 0900 hours. The voting will continue till 1800 hours.
However, voting has been delayed at many booths due to technical snag in EVM and VVPAT.
Long queues were seen since early morning before the polling stations across the eight districts, where polling is underway for the fourth and final phase elections notwithstanding the scorching sun.
About 95,14,883 voters would exercise the franchise spread over 10792 votes, of which 3092 polling stations have been declared as critical, to seal the fate of 52 candidates contesting for six Lok Sabha seats and 336 candidates for the 41 Assembly seats.
CEO sources said 72,363 polling personnel were engaged in the polling process and web casting has been done in 1126 polling booths, CCTV installed in 564 booths and micro observers have been deployed in 595 booths.
At least 105 booths have been exclusively managed by the women polling personnel.
Official sources said polling is so far peaceful and no untoward incident has so far been reported from anywhere.The central paramilitary forces had been deployed in the sensitive booths to maintain law and order.
Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar said additional forces have been deployed in Kendrapara Lok Sabha constituency, considered as politically most sensitive in the state where BJP Vice- President Baijant Panda is pitted against actor turned politician and BJD Rajya Sabha member Anubhav Mohanty.
For the ruling BJD, Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat has become a prestige issue as the parliamentary constituency is being considered as the work place of legendary leader late Biju Pattnaik.
Chief Minister and BJD supremo Naveen Patnaik had in the last two days concentrated in Kendrapara district and launched an extensive road shows and series of public meetings to ensure the victory of party candidates.
The six Lok Sabha seats going for polling today are Mayurbhanj(ST), Balasore, Bhadrak(SC), Jajpur(SC), Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur(SC) and 41 Assembly seats falling under these parliamentary constituencies.
The polling in Patkura assembly seat falling under Kendrapara Lok sabha constituency will be held on May 19 following the demise of BJD candidate Bed Prakash Agarwal on April 20 last.
Prominent among those whose fate would be sealed today’s polling are Baijant Panda(BJP) and Anubhav Mohanty (BJD) for Kendrapara Lok Sabha, Pratap Sharangi(BJP), Rabindra kumar Jena(BJD) and Nabajyoti Patnaik ( INC) for Balasore Lok Sabha seat.
Similarly in the assembly elections, prominent among those whose electoral fortune will be decided today are Odisha Congress Chief Niraanjan Patnaik( Bhandaripokhari),Odisha Finance minister Sashi Bhusan Behera( Kendrapara), Health and family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena ( Mahanga),Higher Education Minister Ananta Das(Bhograi) ,BJD Rajya Sabha MP Pratap Kishore Deb ( Aul) and former Congress Minister Ganeswar Behera( Pattamundai).
Today’s polling will also decide the fate of more than a dozen former ministers belonging to all the three major political parties- the BJD, the BJP and the Congress.
In the 2014 elections ,the ruling BJD had captured all the six Lok Sabha seats, and 37 of the total 41 Assembly seats while the Congress won three seats and the BJP one seat.
