Stage set for 3rd phase polls in Odisha

All arrangements are in place for the third phase of polls to six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly segments in Odisha due on Tuesday.

Elections will be held for six Lok Sabha constituencies - Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal - along with the 42 Assembly segments under them.

As many as 92.65 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the third phase polls. Out of the total voters, there are 47.99 lakh male , 44.56 female voters and 1,163 transgenders, said chief electoral officer Surendra Kumar.

They will decide the fate of 61 Lok Sabha and 356 Assembly candidates in 10,464 booths.

As may as 68,422 polling personnel have been deployed to carry out the polling smoothly in the state. As many as 38 polling booths with all-women polling personnel have been set up in these constituencies, said Kumar.

The officials have identified 3,186 critical polling booths while CCTVs have been installed in 779 booths and Central Armed Police Forces have been deployed in 596 polling stations.

Several political heavyweights, including former bureaucrats, are contesting elections in the third phase.

Former Union Minister Kamakhya Prasad Singhdeo, sitting MPs Pinaki Mishra and Bhatruhari Mahtab, former bureaucrats Aparajita Sarangi, Prakash Mishra and Arup Patnaik, two spokespersons Sambit Patra and Satya Prakash Nayak are contesting from different Lok Sabha constituencies.

Besides, several ministers are contesting from the Assembly constituencies. Maheswar Mohanty (Puri), Badri Narayan Patra (Ghasipura), Prafulla Mallick (Kamakshyanagar), Nrusingh Charan Sahu (Parjang) and Ashok Chandra Panda (Ekamra-Bhubaneswar) are contesting in the third phase.

Pradesh Congress Committee president Niranjan Patnaik is fighting from Ghasipura constituency against Minister Badri Narayan Patra.

--IANS

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