21% Voter Turnout Till 11AM In Urban Elections; Naveen & Bhubaneswar Mayor Candidates Cast Vote [Watch]

Bhubaneswar: Till 11 am, 21 per cent polling was recorded across Odisha in elections to 109 urban local bodies, including three municipal corporations, informed State Election Commission on Thursday.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik walked all the way from his residence ‘Naveen Nivas’ to a polling booth at Aerodrome Upper Primary School in ward no. 53 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), covering a distance of around 200 metres, to cast his vote.

The three Mayor candidates – Sulochana Das (BJD), Suniti Mund (BJP) and Madhusmita Acharya (Congress) for Bhubaneswar have also cast their votes.

While Sulochan cast her vote at booth-407 in Utkalamani Government UP School, Nayapalli, Suniti showed the indelible ink mark on her index finger after coming out of Jharpada High School. Madhusmita exercised her franchise at a primary school in IRC Village.

Around 7.25 lakh voters will exercise their franchise in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation to decide the fate of 12 mayor candidates and 289 corporator candidates in 67 wards. of the 705 booths in the city and its periphery, 110 have been identified as sensitive.

Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) Commissioner Ananya Das cast her vote at booth-112 in PWD office, Killafort. A total of 4,50,759 voters will exercise their franchise in 449 polling booths across the 59 wards of CMC to elect 59 corporators and a Mayor. Six pink polling booths have been set up in wards 1, 6, 9, 16, 46 and 47 and managed by women officials, while five model polling booths having modern amenities are in wards 1, 6, 9, 46 and 47. Special arrangements have also been made to facilitate differently-abled voters, said CMC election officer Bijay Kumar Khandayatray.

Odisha is holding the much-delayed urban local body polls after a gap of 10 years. About 40.55 lakh voters will decide the fate of more than 6,400 candidates in the fray.

In 2013-14, BJD had won 70 of the 94 ULBs, while BJP scored a win in 15 and Congress in 6.

Voting underway across the state, check pics here: