BHUBANESWAR: Voting from home for the elderly and persons with disabilities started in all the Assembly constituencies of Khurda district on Wednesday. The seats will go to polls in the third phase on May 25.
As per officials, 1,704 PwDs and senior citizens aged 85 and above (categorised as very senior citizens) across eight Assembly constituencies have opted for voting from home. While 1,218 are aged above 85, 482 are PwDs.
The constituencies under Khurda district are Jayadev, Bhubaneswar Central, Bhubaneswar North, Ekamra-Bhubaneswar, Jatni, Begunia, Khurda and Chilika. The highest 321 voters in both the categories are from Chilika constituency. Within Bhubaneswar city, four constituencies have 795 voters from both categories.
Officials said a team of three to four polling officials, a police personnel and a booth level officer visited voters’ houses with a ballot box which was used by voters to cast their votes.
The exercise will continue for the next few days. In the first week of May, voting from home for elderly and persons with disabilities was held in districts under Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Berhampur and Koraput constituencies. Around 4,158 PwDs and senior citizens had opted for the home voting option then.
In Odisha, there are 3.02 lakh senior citizens aged 85 and above and 4.57 lakh PwDs. Last month, Khurda administration had launched door-to-door campaigns to provide ‘form 12D’, a letter informing the assistant returning officer that the person may not be in a position to go to the polling station and should be allowed to vote in their homes, to very senior citizens and PwDs.
Very senior citizens and PwDs with 40 per cent benchmark disability can still avail the optional home voting facility. However, such voters will not be eligible to cast their votes physically at the booths.
Meanwhile, after completion of the second phase of EVM randomisation, commissioning of EVMs began on Wednesday. The commissioning is being done at BJB Autonomous College, Prananath College, among other places.
On May 23, the polling parties will travel to all the booths with the EVMs and other materials. Around 19.6 lakh voters will exercise their franchise at 1,923 polling centres across the district.