Bhubaneswar: As many as 79,69,887 electors will be exercising their franchise in the five parliamentary constituencies of Bargarh, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska and the 35 Vidhan Sabha segments under them on May 20 during the 5th phase of the simultaneous General Elections 2024.
According to a press release issued by the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Odisha, out of the total 79,69,887 electors, 40,33,992 are male, 39,35,044 are female and 851 are from the third gender.
Among these voters, 2,13,129 are in the age group of 18-19 years and are first-time electors.
Similarly, 16,98,516 are youths in the age group of 20-29 years.
In this 5th phase, overall 55,882 are voters are above 85 years, 1,812 are centenarians, 1,07,823 are Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), 46 overseas voters and 10, 630 service voters.
In this phase, there are a total of 9,148 polling booths and 14 additional polling booths.
Out of the 9148 polling booths, 1090 are in urban areas while 8058 are in rural areas.
Besides, out of the 9148 polling booths, 1041 are managed by women employees and 25 are managed by PwD employees.
In this phase, there are 1541 model polling booths. Over 60,000 polling personnel have been deployed in this phase.
A total of 40 candidates which include 34 males and 6 females are contesting from the parliamentary constituencies of Bargarh, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska.
Similarly, a total of 265 candidates which include 224 males and 41 females are contesting from the 35 assembly Segments in these parliamentary constituencies.
“We will be deploying 102 companies of CAPF in these areas. Kandhamal will have the maximum deployment of CAPF i.e. 22 companies followed by Ganjam 20 companies. About 20 per cent of the polling stations are critical. We will deploy CAPF in all these polling stations. Along with CAPF, we will also adopt non-CAPF civil measures which include live webcasting, videography, micro observers, etc. We will be extremely vigilant during the last 72 hours and the silence period also begins today. In fact, all the outsiders who are not voters of the constituency have to leave the respective polling areas today i.e either 4 PM, 5 PM or 6 PM,” informed CEO Nikunja Bihari Dhal briefing reporters here today.
