BHUBANESWAR: Curtains came down on the high-decibel campaign for the fourth and final phase elections in Odisha in which six Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 Assembly segments will go to polls on June 1.
Voting will take place for Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha seats. About 99.61 lakh voters, the highest in any phase, including 50.88 lakh male, 48.72 lakh female and 687 third gender electors, will vote to decide the fate of 460 candidates contesting in this round.
BJP’s former Union minister Pratap Sarangi, national vice-president Baijayant Panda; BJD’s Sudam Marndi, Lekhasri Samantsinghar, Manjulata Mandal and Ansuman Mohanty; Congress’ Srikant Jena and JMM’s Anjani Soren are prominent among the 66 Lok Sabha candidates in the fray.
Similarly, BJD’s state ministers Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak and Preetiranjan Gharei along with leaders Subhasini Jena, Byomakesh Ray; BJP’s state president Manmohan Samal, actor-politician Akash Das Nayak and Prakash Soren and Congress’ former state president Niranjan Patnaik are among the 394 candidates who will be testing their luck in the Assembly elections.
Chief electoral officer (CEO), Odisha, Nikunja Bihari Dhal said, “This is the only phase in which there will be no restrictions on voting time in any booth. The time fixed for end of voting will be 6 pm in all the constituencies.”
Around 70,000 polling personnel will be engaged for smooth conduct of the elections in 10,882 booths. Around 16 per cent of them have been marked critical. To maintain law and order, the CEO said, around 126 companies of CAPFs will be deployed. Of these, 21 companies will be deployed in Jajpur, while 22 will be pressed into service in Balasore and 16 in Bhadrak. Around 18 companies of CAPF each will also guard Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj.
There will be around 1,400 all-women managed polling stations in this phase. Twenty per cent of the total booths will be model polling stations. With IMD predicting hot and humid weather conditions, the CEO said, all arrangements will be made for ensuring safety of the voters. Asha and paramedical staff will be engaged at booth and sector officer level for immediate response to health emergencies.
“Around 73 to 74 per cent voter turnout had been recorded in these constituencies in the last general elections. We are expecting high voter turnout this time as well,” the CEO said.
