The third phase of simultaneous elections to six Lok Sabha seats and 42 assembly segments in Odisha is being held on Saturday. Voting begins at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm. The high-octane campaigning for the elections ended at 5 pm on Thursday. A total of 447 candidates, including 64 for the Lok Sabha seats and 383 for the assembly constituencies, are in the fray in the penultimate phase of elections. Along with the state election, the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha election will also take place tomorrow. Results will be known on June 4.
Out of the 42 Assembly constituencies, there are 31 general seats, five Scheduled Tribes seats and six Scheduled Castes seats.
Notable candidates include Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is contesting from the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, along with state ministers Prafulla Mallick, Ranendra Pratap Swain, and Ashok Panda vying for assembly segments. Additionally, several incumbent MLAs are among the contenders.
In the 2019 elections, the BJD secured victories in the Cuttack, Puri, Keonjhar, and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seats, while the BJP emerged victorious in Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar.
The campaign saw intense activity, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing rallies in Angul and Cuttack and conducting roadshows in Bhubaneswar and Puri. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, along with Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bhupendra Yadav, and chief ministers from BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan, campaigned for party candidates.
Meanwhile, Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his close associate V K Pandian led multiple roadshows and rallies while canvassing for BJD candidates.
Approximately 94.48 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in 10,581 polling booths, with 2,000 identified as critical and another 2,000 designated as model booths, according to Chief Electoral Officer N B Dhal. A total of 121 companies of central forces will be deployed for this phase of the polls.