Bhubaneswar: All arrangements have been made to ensure smooth conduct of second phase of polling for five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats in Odisha on May 20, Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said on Saturday.
Addressing a press meet in Bhubaneswar, the CEO said that voting will be held in 9,162 polling stations, including 14 additional booths.
Of the total booths, 20 per cent have been identified as sensitive or critical polling stations including some located in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected districts of the state.
Therefore, a total of 102 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) will be deployed in the districts where voting is scheduled to be held on May 20, Dhal said.
Stating that the highest deployment of 22 companies will be made in Kandhamal district, he said 20 companies will be posted in Ganjam, 16 companies in Sundargarh, 14 companies each in Balangir and Bargarh, 5 companies in Jharsuguda, 4 in Sonepur 4 and 2 companies of CAPF in Nayagarh.
He said as many as 79, 69, 887 voters have been enrolled to cast votes in the elections to five parliamentary and 35 assembly constituencies in the second phase.
The electorate for the next round of polling comprised 39,45,000 female voters, 40,33,992 male and 851 transgender voters.
Of the total booths, 1,041 booths will be managed by women pooling officers and 25 booths will be headed by PwD employees. Altogether 1,541 booths have been named as model polling stations.
As many as 265 candidates, including 40 women, are in the poll fray for 35 Assembly constituencies and a total of 40 contestants are fighting polls from five Lok Sabha seats – Bargarh, Sundargarh, Kandhamal, Aska and Bolangir.
On money seized during election campaigning, the CEO said articles worth Rs 254 crore have been seized from different places in the state so far. The seizures include hard cash of Rs 17.18 crore, 31 lakh litres of liquor, drugs worth Rs 73 crore and gold ornaments worth Rs 14 crore.
The highest cash amount of Rs 1.26 crore and the highest 8 lakh litre of liquor have been seized from Bargarh district. Rs 36 lakh and Rs 13 lakh were seized from Kandhamal and Aska parliamentary constituencies, respectively.
The CEO said live streaming of voting has been arranged at 60 per cent of booths.
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