- 10515 polling stations.
- 121 companies of CAPF deployment.
- Female Security guards.
- Emergency medical facilities.
Bhubaneswar: Campaigning for the third phase of elections in the state has ended on Thursday. The third phase of polling will be held on Saturday and all the preparations for this have been completed, the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state has informed.
In this phase, 94.48 lakh voters of six Lok Sabha constituencies of 03-Sambalpur, 04- Keonjhar (ST), 09-Dhenkanal, 14-Cuttack, 17-Puri and 18-Bhubaneswar along with 42 assembly constituencies under it will decide the fate of 447 candidates on May 25 in the sixth phase of the concurrent general election-2024.
Among the 94.48 lakh voters, 48.29 lakh are men, 46.17 lakh are women and 1291 are of third gender. The gender ratio of voters stands at 956. The electorate includes 2.37 lakh first-time voters aged 18-19 years and 18.45 lakh young voters aged 20-29Â years.
There are a total of 64 candidates (55 males, 9 females) for the six parliamentary constituencies and 383 candidates (339 males, 44 females) for the 42 assembly constituencies within these parliamentary constituencies are set to test their fate during the 3rd phase of elections.
Informing the media, CEO Nikunj Bihari Dhal said that all preparations for the third phase of voting in the state have been completed.Â
The Election Commission has set up a total of 10,515 polling stations and 36 additional polling stations for this phase, with approximately 896 voters per polling station. About 1500 polling stations will be fully managed by women staff and 30 will be fully handled by differently-abled staff.
Special emphasis is placed on security arrangements for polling. 121 companies of CAPF will be deployed to maintain peace. Apart from the strong room, the CEO has ordered them to be deployed at around 2,000 polling stations.
Along with this, Dhal has appealed to more number of voters to exercise their right to vote. For the voters’ comfort, the commission has made various arrangements.
Arrangements for polling day include volunteers to help senior and disabled voters with their transport from home to booths and booths at home. As far as possible, there will be booths with female security guards. Minimum facilities of drinking water, toilets and shade have been ensured in the polling booths for the voters.
As per IMD heat waves are not expected on the polling day still there will be emergency medical facilities, ORS, etc. A Para-Medical Staff along with a Medical Officer will remain on standby. A heatstroke ward has been set up with drinking water stations have been arranged in various polling stations.
With these arrangements in place, Odisha is all set for a smooth and inclusive polling process.
It is worth noting that during this stage, heavyweight leaders like Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJD Organisational Secretary Pranab Prakash Das, BJP MPs Aparajita Sarangi and Pratap Sarangi, BJP National Spokesperson Sambit Patra along with Bhartruhari Mahtab, Arup Patnaik, Santrupt Misra will be testing their luck.
