Campaigning Ends for Second Phase Polls in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: The high-voltage campaigning came to an end on Saturday evening for the second phase of simultaneous elections in Odisha.

The second phase voting for the General and Assembly elections in the State will be held on May 20.

Voting will be held for five Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 Assembly constituencies coming under it.

As many as 40 candidates are in fray for the five Lok Sabha seats – Bargarh, Sundargarh, Bolangir, Kandhamal and Aska. 265 candidates are in the electoral battle for the 35 Assembly seats.

Odisha Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal has said that adequate arrangements have been made keeping in view the heat wave condition in the state.

The voting will begin at 7 am in 9148 polling booths spread across the constituencies. Out of these, 20 percent booths have been identified as sensitive or critical. While in 933 polling booths, the voting will be held till 5 PM, in 1789 booths the polling will be held upto 4PM. In all other booths, the voting will end at 6 PM.

A total of 1041 polling booths will be managed solely by women officials. The number of total electors for the 2nd phase elections is 79,69,887 and out of which 2.67 percent voters are first time voters.

The CEO also informed that 102 companies of CAPF will be deployed for free and fair elections in the state in the 2nd phase voting.