A two-week long intense campaigning for the first phase of simultaneous elections to 10 lok Sabha and 70 Assembly constituencies, spread over 19 districts in south and western Odisha, came to an end on Tuesday evening. Polling for the seats would be held on April 10 as the Election Commission of India (ECI) has completed all the arrangements, including security measures, to ensure free and fair elections.
The high voltage campaigning was virtually incident free, save some cases of seizure of illegal movement of money and liquor. With multi-cornered contests in almost all the lok Sabha and Assembly seats, the Thursday’s poll would decide the fate of 98 lok Sabha candidates and 673 Assembly candidates. An estimated 1.36 crore voters would exercise their franchise in 17,266 polling booths, most of which are in Maoist -infested areas. As many as 1,601 polling stations are identified as most vulnerable.
Prominent among those in the fray are Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from Hinjili Assembly seat, former Congress Chief Ministers Hemanand Biswal from Sundargarh lok Sabha (lS) seat, Giridhar Gamang from Koraput lS seat, former Union Minister Dilip Ray from Rourkela Assembly seat, former Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram from Sundargarh lS seat, former Railway Minister Bhakta Das from Kalahandi lS seat and BJP State president KV Singh Deo from Patnagarh Assembly seat.
As many as seven Council of Ministers of Naveen Patnaik Government, three sitting Rajya Sabha members and seven sitting MPs, five of them from the Congress and two from the ruling BJD, will try their luck in the battle of ballots on April 10. The sitting Ministers include Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya from Bijepur Assembly constituency, School and Mass education Minister Rabi Narayan Nanda from Jeypur Assembly seat, sports Minister Ramesh Chandra Majhi from Jharigan Assembly seat, Excise Minister Niranjan Pujari from Sonepur Assembly seat, Revenue Minister Surya Narayan Patro from Digapahandi Assembly seat and Women and Child Development Minister Usha Devi from Chikiti Assembly seat.
Out of the 10 lok Sabha seats going to polls in the first phase both the Congress and the BJD had shared five each in the last elections. While the Congress re-nominated all the five sitting MPs, the BJD dropped three MPs and allowed only two to seek re-election from their constituencies this time.
Also, this time the electioneering witnessed heavyweights from the Congress and the BJP making whirlwind tours to areas despite an unprecedented heat wave condition with mercury hovering over 40 degrees to 42 degrees Celsius.