Odisha elections April 11
Sixty lakh registered voters will be practicing their franchise on April 11 in Odisha as the four phased state assembly elections begin along with Lok Sabha elections. Odisha is one of three states which will be voting for both the Lok Sabha as well as the constituent assembly seats.
The four phases of elections will see voters voting on April 11, 18, 23, 29 with the counting being done on May 23.
The first phase of polling will have over 200 candidates participating from 28 assembly seats.
More than half of the voters in the constituency are women.
Apart from these seats, the voters will also vote for four Lok Sabha seats.
Paramilitary forces will be deployed in the Naxal hit areas for the smooth conduct of the elections.
Biju Janta Dal’s Naveen Patnaik has been in the office of the Chief Minister of Odisha for 19 years running, winning four straight elections. This is being considered as his toughest assignment as he battles the opposition as much as he battles anti-incumbency.
In total there, 7233 booths in Odisha distributed among 21 Lok Sabha and 147 assembly seats.
Here are how things stand in the 4 Lok Sabha constituencies which will vote in the first phase.
Nabarangpur : BJD’s sitting MP Balabhadra Majhi will fight on a BJP ticket and will face BJD's Ramesh Majhi and Congress state working President Pradeep Majhi.
Behrampur : All three major parties have fielded new candidates from Behrampur. BJP's Chandrasekhar Sahu will fight against V Chardra Sekhar Naidu of Congress and Bharugu Baxipatra of BJP.
Kalahandi : BJP state president Basanta Panda will face Bhakta Das of Congress and Pushpendra Singhdeo of BJD.
Koraput : Congress' Saptagiri Ulka will face BJP'Jayaram Pangi.
