71.61 voting recorded in Tuesday polling on 6 LS,42 assembly

Odisha recorded 71.61 per cent voter turn-out during the third phase of polling held in six Lok Sabha and 42 assembly constituencies,a senior election official said Wednesday updating the polling percentage.

While the highest polling of 78.16 per cent was recorded in Keonnjah Lok Sabha constituency, Bhubaneswar recorded the lowest voter turnout of 59.60 per cent during the election held on Tuesday.

Closely following Keonjhar was Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat where voting percentage stood at 76.38 per cent, while it was 74.98 per cent in Dhenkanal, an official in the office of the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) said.

Puri parliamentary constituency posted 72.53 per cent voter turnout, while Cuttack Lok Sabha seat recorded 69.65 per cent balloting, he said.

Re-polling has been recommended in two booths where voting was hit due to human error during attachment of Voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT). The booths are booth number 196 under Baramba Assembly segment and booth number 183 under Deogarh Assembly constituency.

A estimated 92.56 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the third phase of polling held on April 23 for the Lok Sabha constituencies of Puri, Sambalpur, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal and the 42 assembly seats that come under them.

The electoral fortunes of 417 candidates, including BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra and Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Niranjan Patnaik, were sealed in electronic voting machines (EVM) in the third phase of the staggered elections.

Six women were among the 61 hopefuls in the Lok Sabha constituencies. In the assembly segments, 37 of the 356 nominees are women.