Barring a few incidents of clashes, polling was peaceful in six Lok Sabha constituencies and 42 Assembly segments in Odisha with a voter turnout of over 62 per cent recorded till 5 pm on Saturday, an EC official said.
Sixty-six candidates are in the fray in the Lok Sabha seats, while 394 nominees are contesting the Assembly segments in the fourth and last phase of simultaneous polls in the eastern State.
Key candidates in this phase include Odisha Assembly Speaker Pramila Mallik, Government Chief Whip Prashant Kumar Mudili, and State Ministers — Sudam Marndi, Ashwini Patra, Pritiranjan Ghadai, Atanu S Nayak, Pratap Deb and T K Behera.
Four sitting MPs — Pratap Sarangi from Balasore, Manju Lata Mandal from Bhadrak), Sarmistha Sethi from Jajpur and Rajashree Mallick from Jagatsinghpur — are in the fray in their respective seats. A polling official and a voter died of suspected heatstroke in the State, he said. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) NB Dhal said, "Polling was peaceful in 10,882 booths, barring a few reports of EVM glitches, which were resolved."
