The State Electoral Officer on Monday imposed a ban on the publication of any exit poll by any media or any other organization in the two days left for second-phase polls to be held on April 17.
little over 1.55 crore voters would exercise their franchise in 18,692 booths under the 11 lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies spread over 13 districts.
The fate of as many as 98 candidates, including 11 women, in the 11 lok Sabha seats and 747 candidates are contesting the Assembly seats.
There are to tatal 65 women candidates trying their luck in the Assembly segments.
Since three Assembly constituencies-Morada and Rairangpur under the Mayurbhanj (ST reserved) Parliamentary seat and Ekamra –Bhubaneswar under Bhubaneswar lok Sabha have more than 16 candidates each, the Election Commission has made arrangements for installing two EVMs in 740 booths to ensure smooth polling.
According to office of the CEO sources, as many as 1,41,645 polling personnel have been requisitioned for conducting the poll in 18,692 polling stations in the second phase.
Besides in order to ensure free and fair and incident free polling process, all the para-military forces deployed during the first phase of poll would be engaged in the last phase along with the large number of State police personnel, the sources said.
The polling parties would be started leaving for their respective allotted booths from 15 April.
However, in Bhubaneswar Muniicipal limits, the polling parties would be dispersed on April 16.
The campaign will end on Tuesday afternoon in the State.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission gave green signal for holding re-poll on April 17 in 22 booths where voting was affected due to EVM loot by Maoists and snags in EVMs during the first phase of elections in the State.
The commission directed the State election authorities to conduct re-poll along with the voting for the second phase of polls for 11 lok sabha and 77 Assembly seats on April 17, according to the office of the State Chief Electoral Officer.
Re-polling would be held at 15 booths in the Maoist-infested Malkangiri district, two booths each in Koraput and Kandhamal and one each in Bargarh, Jharsuguda and Sambalpur.