Odisha to go for polls from April in two phases ; seeks addl forces

The Election Commission of India has announced two dates--April 10 and 17-- for conducting elections for 21 Lok Sabha and 147 state assembly seats in Odisha.

Polling in the first phase will be held in 10 parliamentary constituencies and 70 assembly seats on April 10, for which notifications will be issued on March 15, said Mona Sharma, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Odisha at a press meet here.The Lok Sabha constituencies which will go to polls on first phase included Bargarh, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Kandhamal, Aska, Berhampur and Koraput. In the second phase, polls on April 17 will be held in 11 parliamentary constituencies comprising Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Bhubaneswar, Sharma said, adding that 77 assembly segments under these Lok Sabha seats will also go to polls on the same day.

For the first phase, the last date of filing nomination has been fixed on March 22 while for the second phase, the date is March 26. Countings of the votes will be taking place on May 16, along with all other centres of the country.

To conduct free and fair election, the state has sought additional security forces.

"We have already 89 companies of central para-military force in the state. We have sought additional force to conduct free and fair elections in both the Naxal-hit areas and other parts of the state," Sharma told reporters.

In the upcoming elections, nearly 3 lakh government employees apart from security personnel would be engaged in the exercise. All precautionary steps would be taken in Left Wing Extremism (LEW) hit areas of the state, Sharma said, mentioning that separate polling dates for interior and coastal areas would help in focusing more on curbing any unprecedented situations in the red rebel districts.

"We have already identified the sensitive and hyper -sensitive booths in the state and all the district collectors and superintendents of police (SP) have been asked to place their requirements," Sharma said.

As per official estimate, a total of 2.88 crore people are eligible to cast their votes in Odisha. Of them 1.5 crore are males and 1.38 are females while 1106 voters come under others category. In the 2014 elections, about 70 lakh new voters have been added, out of which 10 lakh voters are aged between 18 years to 19 years.

--EOM--