Odisha: 6 LS seats, 42 assembly constituencies to go to polls in final phase
BJP national vice president Baijyant Panda, 2 former ministers are in fray
By Nalini Sahu
Bhubaneswar, May 31: As many as s parliamentary segments and 42 assembly segments in nine police districts of Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapada, Cuttack Rural, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Cuttack will go to polls in the final phase of ongoing general elections.
None of the districts are Maoist affected. However, some of them are highly politically-sensitive.
The six Lok Sabha which will go to the polls in the final phase are Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Balasore. BJP national president Baijayant Jay Panda is contesting from Kendrapara. Of this six Lok Sabha seats, ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) had won four in 2019.
Two former Union ministers – Srikant Jena (Congress) and Pratap Sarangi (BJP) are caught in a triangular battle along with Lekhashree Samantasinghar of BJP in Balasor parliamentary constituency.
Of the 42 assembly seats which will go to the polls on Saturday, 34 were won by the BJD.
The voting will be conducted in 10,882 booths located at over 8,000 different locations. Out of the total booths, 21 per cent of the total booths are sensitive. Adequate security arrangements have been made for the conduct of the polls in a free and fair manner.
Senior officials of Odisha Police on Friday informed that around 36000 manpower, including 126 companies of CAPF, 86 platoons of Odisha Armed Police and 20500 civil police personnel will be deployed. One to half section CAPF will be deployed in all sensitive booths.
As per arrangement, there will be 100 percent utilization of CAPF in booth duty related works. The CAPF personnel will be deployed in 2280 critical/ vulnerable booths, senior officials said.
Apart from this, there is one Police observer of ECI for each Parliament Constituency. Besides, there is Special Police Observer for the State.
EVM Strong Rooms at 13 locations have been established and are being guarded round-the-clock by CAPF and SAP in a 2-tier security arrangement.
