Cuttack: Bhartruhari Mahtab of BJD successfully retained the Lok Sabha seat by defeating BJP nominee and former Odisha DGP Prakash Mishra by a margin of 1,21,201 votes in the recently concluded general elections.
However, the BJP did better when it came to postal ballots in Cuttack district. The party nominees bagged maximum postal votes in both, Cuttack Lok Sabha seat and six of the nine Assembly segments in the district.
Despite being the winner, Mahtab won only 475 votes while Mishra bagged 1,432 in the parliamentary seat. Congress candidate Panchanana Kanungo polled only 105 postal votes.
As mention in Election Commission, members of the armed forces like the Army, Navy and Air Force, members of the armed police force of a state but serving outside the state, people employed under the Government of India in a post outside India, like Ambassadors and High Commissioners and their staff, are allowed to vote through the postal ballot.
These people can only vote through postal ballots and not in person in a polling booth.
Their wives are also allowed to vote through postal ballots.
Voters on election duty like a polling agents, polling officers, presiding officers or other public servants are allowed to vote through postal ballots if they are unable to vote at the polling station where they are entitled to vote.
Under the ‘notified voters’ category, anyone notified by the EC, in consultation with the government to give their vote by postal ballot and not in any other manner, can cast their votes through postal ballots.
While prisoners are not allowed to vote, people under preventive detention can cast their votes through postal ballots as well.
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