Bhubaneswar: Over 92.56 lakh voters will decide the fate of 417 candidates in the third phase of polls for six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats in the state Tuesday.
Briefing media persons here Monday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumdar said preparations for the third phase have reached the final stage and necessary steps have been taken to ensure free and fair voting in 10,464 booths.
“Polling will be held in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 Assembly segments that come under them,” he stated.
Out of a total of 92,56,922 voters in these constituencies, 47,99,030 are male, 44,56,729 female and 1163 belong to the third gender. Similarly, 7,11,278 first time voters will exercise their franchise Tuesday.
Over 68,000 polling personnel have been deployed to conduct the third phase election while 6,759 vehicles will be used for their transportation, Kumar stated. The EC has also set up 38 all women polling personnel booths for this phase. Of the total 10,464 booths, 3,186 have been identified as critical. The Central Armed Police Force (CAPF) personnel will be deployed in 596 booths, he said.
Similarly, steps have been taken for webcasting in 913 booths, providing CCTV in 779 booths and engaging 858 micro-observers, Kumar said. Videography will be conducted in 372 places and photography in 260 polling stations.
As many as 20,778 volunteers and 6,190 vehicles have been engaged to assist 1,58,495 differently-abled voters, the CEO said.
Kumar said, re-polling will be held in nine polling stations located in Bonai (ST), Sundargarh (ST), Daspalla (SC), Attabira, Bargarh, Padampur, Surada and Brajarajnagar Assembly constituencies. This followed reports of glitches in EVMs during the second phase of polling, Kumar added.
Satyajit Mohanty, the Cuttack-Bhubaneswar police commissioner, said, measures were being taken in the Assembly seat, following assaults on the two nominees.
“While CAPF has been deployed in critical and sensitive booths, steps have been taken to maintain a close vigil in trouble-prone areas. Similarly, the election department has made elaborate arrangements for webcasting of the process from more than 800 booths,” the official said.
Six women are among the 61 hopefuls in the Lok Sabha constituencies while 37 of the 356 nominees contesting for Assembly seats are women.
Former Union minister Kamakhya Prasad Singhdeo, sitting MPs Pinaki Mishra and Bhartruhari Mahtab, former bureaucrats Aparajita Sarangi, Prakash Mishra and Arup Patnaik, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra and Congress spokesperson Satya Prakash Nayak are contesting from different LS constituencies.
Besides, several ministers are contesting for Assembly seats. 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.