Bhubaneswar: A total of 298 candidates are in the fray for the second-phase Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in Odisha, scheduled on April 18.
Informing the media here on Thursday, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar said 45 candidates had filed nominations for five Lok Sabha seats and 299 for 35 Assembly seats for the second-phase polls. During verification, nominations of 37 Lok Sabha candidates and 261 Assembly candidates were found to be valid.
During the verification of nomination papers for the first-phase polls held on March 26, 28 of 30 nomination papers filed for four Lok Sabha seats and 203 of 245 nominations for 28 Assembly seats were found to be valid.