Bhubaneswar: Voter turnout of 37.64% was recorded till 1 PM in Odisha’s six Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly segments on Saturday where simultaneous elections are held.
Around one crore people are going to exercise their franchise in six parliamentary constituencies — Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur– and 42 Assembly segments under these constituencies.
As per the Election Commission of India, Mayurbhanj with 40.09 % voting has recorded maximum polling among the parliamentary constituencies. Balasore Lok Sabha constituency recorded 40.71%, Bhadrak 36.64%, Jagatsinghpur 38.82%, Jajpur 33.96% and Kendrapara 35.84% till 1 PM.
Addressing a press conference here, Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal said, “Polling is going on peacefully in 10,882 polling stations in the last phase of polling.
Dhal further stated that 6,279 (58 per cent) polling booths are under strict surveillance through live webcasting. He also informed the media that 129 ballot units, 189 control units and 515 VVPATs have been replaced till 1PM after the EVM machines were found malfunctioning.
On the allegations of EVM malfunctioning, Dhal said that no major problems have been reported from anywhere in the state. There is nothing unusual in the EVM in this case, he added.
He urged voters to come out of their houses in large numbers and exercise their democratic rights.
Sporadic incidents of poll violence have been reported from several places including Salipur, Bhadrak, Korei and Dhamnagar where clashes between BJD and BJP supporters took place.
The voters will decide the fate of several heavyweights from different political parties, including former Union Minister and BJP’s Balasore MP candidate, Pratap Chandra Sarangi, the party’s national vice president and candidate for Kendrapara Lok Sabha seat, Baijayant Panda, senior Congress leader Srikant Kumar Jena, ruling Biju Janata Dal leader Pratap Keshari Deb. in this phase.
As many as 460 candidates, including 66 for the parliamentary elections and 394 for the Assembly elections, are in the fray.
