Odisha Assembly Election 2019 Voting LATEST Updates: Till 2 pm, Odisha recorded a voter turnout of 32.82 percent. Dhenkanal constituency recorded the highest at 37.67 percent, and Bhubaneswar polled 27.17 percent. The District Election Officer has issued a show cause notice to BJD’s Cuttack-Barabati candidate Debashish Samantaray in connection with his Facebook post “influencing voters” during the silence period on 22 April. Meanwhile, the voter turnout at 1 pm in Odisha remained unchanged from 18.58 percent at noon. Odisha recorded 18.58 percent voter turnout till 12 pm amid EVM glitches. Bhubaneswar continues to see a low turnout of 8.68 percent. Just like in Phase 2, polling in various places was delayed in Odisha due to problems with voting machines. There have been reports of EVM malfunction across the state, including in Keonjhar, Puri, Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Champua. Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik has alleged that party poll agents were being beaten up and abducted from Ghasipura, the constituency from where he is contesting the Assembly polls. “Agents are being beaten up and abducted. Many booths lack police deployment and some polling stations have no CCTV surveillance,” he said. Till 11 am, Odisha recorded a voter turnout of 7.15 percent. State capital Bhubaneswar saw the lowest polling at 3.56 percent, while it was the highest in Keonjhar at 8.12 percent. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a public meeting at Barua Ground in Kendrapara, followed by another meeting in Balasore, regions that vote in Phase 4 of the polls. Odisha Congress chief Niranjan Patnaik voted in Keonjhar, while Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik cast his vote in Bhubaneswar. The voter turnout till 10 am stands at 7.15 percent. A little over two hours into voting in Phase 3, there have been scores of reports of EVM glitches across the state, which has delayed voting. Voters have been complaining about untrained election officials and their long wait in queues. Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan cast his vote in Odisha’s Talcher, once again urging voters “to step out of their homes and cast their precious vote”. Former IAS officer and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Bhubaneswar Aparajita Sarangi voted in the Odisha capital. Security arrangements were tightened ahead of the election in Odisha in the wake of recent incidents of political violence in the districts voting in Phase 3. This included the murder of a BJP worker in Khurda, an attack on a Congress leader in Ghasipura as well as bombings on the vehicles of BJP and BJD candidates in Bhubaneswar. Most seats in Odisha will vote from 7 am to 6 pm, but polling will end early at a few sensitive booths. Voting has begun for the 42 Assembly segments that fall under six Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar said 3,186 booths in Odisha had been marked ‘critical’. As many as 600 CAPF personnel have been deployed to ensure security during the polls. Phase 3 has 68,422 polling officers and 395 zonal magistrates handling the elections. Polling in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Puri, Sambalpur, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal Lok Sabha seats and 42 Assembly segments coming under these constituencies in Odisha will be held on Tuesday under tight security. Spearheading the campaign for the BJP, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and party president Amit Shah crisscrossed the poll-bound segments addressing a host of rallies. BJP leaders including Union Ministers Uma Bharti, Nitin Gadkari, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Piyush Goyal also hit the campaign trail in these seats. Apart from addressing rallies in Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar on 16 April, Modi had also led a massive roadshow in the state capital the same day to bolster the prospects of the BJP at the hustings. Similar roadshows had been held by Amit Shah in the seaside pilgrim town of Puri and the millennium city of Cuttack as part of BJP’s electioneering. Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who hails from Odisha, is virtually camping in the state as the BJP is making all out efforts to put up a formidable challenge to the BJD, which has been in power since 2000. Star campaigners of the Congress were absent in this phase and electioneering was steered by leaders like Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president Niranjan Patnaik. For the ruling BJD, party president and state Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, seeking a fifth term this time, was at the centre stage undertaking extensive tours of the poll-bound areas and holding roadshows. While the Congress and the BJP accused the BJD of having failed to ensure development in the state despite being in power for 19 years, the ruling party charged the two parties with adopting step-motherly approach towards Odisha and ignoring its genuine demands. With inputs from PTI
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