An estimated 45 per cent voters exercised their franchise till 2 p.m. for the simultaneous second and last phase of the elections to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies in Odisha on Thursday.
Angul district recorded the highest polling of 52.3 per cent, followed by Keonjhar with 51 per cent and the lowest was over 32 per cent in Puri district, PTI sources said.
Around 15 per cent voters exercised their franchise during first three hours for the simultaneous second and last phase election to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies in Odisha on Thursday.
Among the early voters were Assam Governor J B Patnaik and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as brisk polling was witnessed in several areas while Angul district recorded 19 per cent polling.
While Naveen Patnaik cast his vote at Aerodrome colony U.G.U.P School Polling Station, J B Pataik, also a former Odisha chief minister, voted at a polling centre at Rameshwar in Khurda district.
Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Jaydev Jena exercised his franchise in Anandpur in Keonjhar district, while his predecessor and Congress stalwart Niranjan Patnaik also cast his vote in Keonjhar.
As the weather remained cloudy since morning in most of the areas in the two regions, long queues were seen in a large number of polling booths since beginning of polling.
Although 2,270 polling booths were identified as sensitive out of the total 18,692 booths in view of the presence of Maoists in some constituencies, no untoward incident was reported during the initial period of polling.
While polling was in progress in a peaceful manner in the constituencies spread over 13 districts in coastal and northern Odisha, reports of delay in voting were received from some places due to snag in EVMs. Such reports were received from Nahagarh and Kakatpur areas.
A total of 1,55,36,241 voters were scheduled to exercise their franchise in the simultaneous polls during the day.
The Parliamentary seats where simultaneous polling was being conducted include Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Keonjhar, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Bhubaneswar and Puri.
High voters’ turnout was expected in this phase of poll as around 75 per cent voters had cast their votes in the first phase polls held in 10 Lok Sabha and 70 Assembly seats in the State’s southern and western region on April 10.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal is the major contender in majority of the Lok Sabha and Assembly seats. The party had won nine of the 11 Lok Sabha seats and around 70 of the 77 Assembly segments in the 2009 elections. The Congress and BJP were also hoping to perform better in this phase of poll.
Meanwhile, repolling was also being conducted in as many as 22 polling booths in Malkangiri and other areas where polling was disrupted during the first phase poll.
(With inputs from PTI)
