Finance
Odisha’s four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly constituencies began voting at 7 a.m. on Monday in the state’s first phase of elections. The four Lok Sabha constituencies are Berhampur, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, and Koraput, with 28 Assembly constituencies.
Today, 280 candidates are contesting the first phase of the Odisha elections.
In the first phase of the Odisha elections, 62,87,222 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. Of these, 30,97,527 are male voters and 31,89,060 are female voters, who exercise their rights at 7,303 booths across the state. Several of these booths have been labeled sensitive since they are located in Maoist-infested parts of the state.
The Koraput parliamentary constituency has the least number of voters while Kalahandi has the highest number of voters. Lakshmipur Assembly constituency has the least and Dharmagarh Assembly constituency has the highest number of voters. As many as 3,636 voters in the state have exercised their franchise at home before.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made necessary arrangements in all these booths, including beefing up security arrangements. A total of 17,000 police personnel have been deployed at the booths for smooth and incident-free polling. Acting on the directions of the ECI, the administration has deployed 210 flying squads and 195 static surveillance teams. All the check posts bordering Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are under CCTV surveillance.
After the election, the EVMs will be stored in 15 strong rooms with round-the-clock security.
