First Phase Polling on in 4 Lok Sabha & 28 Assembly Seats In Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The first phase of voting in Odisha in the four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly constituencies began at 7.00 am in on Monday.

Voters are exercising their franchise in the four Lok Sabha constituencies- Berhampur, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, and Koraput as well as the 28 Assembly constituencies under them.

The fate of a total of 280 candidates will be decided in the first phase of elections in Odisha today.

Altogether 62,87,222 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the first phase of voting in Odisha. Out of them 30,97,527 voters are males and 31,89,060 are female voters. They are to vote in 7,303 booths in the state. The booths in the Maoists infested area have been declared as sensitive.

The Koraput parliamentary constituency has the least number of voters while Kalahandi has the highest number of voters. Lakshmipur Assembly constituency has the least and Dharmagarh Assembly constituency has the highest number of voters.

A total of 17,000 police personnel have been deployed at the booths for smooth and incident-free polling. Acting on the directions of the ECI, the administration has deployed 210 flying squads and 195 static surveillance teams. All the check posts bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are under CCTV surveillance.