Last Phase Polling Underway in 6 LS & 42 Assembly Seats in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Voters are exercising their franchise on Saturday in 42 Assembly seats and six Lok Sabha constituencies in Odisha in the fourth and last phase of polling.

Simultaneous voting was held for the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in Odisha on May 13, 20, 25 and June 1.

Polling is on in Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, and Jagatsinghpur Lok Sabha seats as well as the 42 Assembly seats under them.

Nearly 1 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes at 10,882 booths in the fourth and conclusive round of simultaneous polls in the state.

A total of 36,000 security personnel and 72,000 polling officials have been deployed for this phase of voting in Odisha. The security personnel include 125 companies of central forces.

Sixty-six candidates are contesting for the six Lok Sabha seats, while 394 contestants are in the fray for the 42 Assembly segments.

About 2,280 polling booths of this phase have been identified as critical, where deployment of central forces has been made.

The prominent candidates in this phase include Odisha Assembly Speaker Pramila Mallik, Government Chief Whip Prashant Kumar Mudili, four sitting MPs — Pratap Sarangi (Balasore), Manjula Mandal (Bhadrak), Sarmistha Sethi (Jajpur) and Rajashree Mallick (Jagatsinghpur).

Ahead of the polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh, BJP president JP Nadda have campaigned extensively.

While Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his aide VK Pandian campaigned for Biju Janata Dal candidates, Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Mallikarjun Kharge addressed rallies in Balasore and Bhadrak.