Bhubaneswar: First phase Poll in 4 Lok Sabha, 28 Assembly constituencies to be held today. The polling parties reached allotted booths with all voting equipment by Wednesday night.
The four LS constituencies going to polls are Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Brahmapur and Koraput.
While 26 candidates are in the fray for the Lok Sabha seats, as many as 191 candidates are contesting polls for the Assembly seats. A total of 60, 03,707 voters, comprising 29, 72, 925 males and 30, 30, 222 females are to exercise their franchise.
The fates of senior leaders like BJD candidate Chandra Sekhar Sahu and BJP nominee Bhrugu Baxipatra for the Brahmapur Lok Sabha seat, BJD’s Ramesh Chandra Majhi, Congress’ Pradeep Majhi and BJP’s Balabhadra Majhi for the Nabarangpur LS seat, BJP’s Jayaram Pangi for Koraput seat, BJD’s Pushpendra Singh Deo, Congress’ Bhakta Charan Das and BJP State president Basant Panda for the Kalahandi LS seat will be decided in the first phase.
As many as 47, 805 officials have been deployed for smooth conduct of elections in 7,233 polling stations.
Since many parts of the four LS constituencies are Maoists-affected, security has been tightened in these areas.
A total of 2,375 booths have been identified as “very sensitive” and Central paramilitary forces and armed police personnel have been deployed to ensure incident-free election.
Polling staffs were transported by a helicopter in the Maoists-infested areas.
To keep a strict vigil on election proceedings, CCTV cameras have been installed and web casting and videography will also be carried out.
For the first time, women personnel have been deployed in 30 booths.
According to Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar, mock polls would be carried out at 6 am in the presence of party agents before voting, which would begin at 7 am.
Earlier on Tuesday, Kumar had informed that satellite phones have been provided at 810 booths where there are no mobile or internet facilities.
In sensitive booths, polling will be carried out from 7 am till 4 pm while voters can cast their ballot between 7 am and 6 pm in other booths.
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