Bhubaneswar: A voter turnout of 39.30 per cent was recorded till 1pm in four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly constituencies in Odisha Monday, officials said.
Voting started at 7am in 7,303 polling stations in Berhampur, Koraput, Nabarangpur, and Kalahandi parliamentary constituencies along with 28 Assembly segments within the jurisdiction of these Lok Sabha seats.
Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are being held simultaneously in Odisha.
Till 1pm, 39.30 per cent of the 62.87 lakh voters have exercised their franchise, the officials said, adding that the highest voter turnout was recorded in tribal-dominated Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat at 42.67 per cent followed by Nabarangpur with 42.65 per cent turnout, Koraput (36.64 per cent) and Berhampur (34.97 per cent).
Police said there was no report of any untoward incident in any polling booth.
The CEO said that EVM glitches were found in several places and they were replaced within 30 minutes. He said as many as 65 Ballot Units (BU), 83 Control Units (CU) and 110 VVPATs were replaced so far and most of the replacements were done during the mock poll exercise before starting of real voting at 7am.
Dhal said there was a lot of enthusiasm among the people. There was smooth voting in Swabhiman Anchal, earlier known as cut-off area, once a Maoist hotbed in Malkangiri district.
He said people in large numbers also cast their votes in the Kotia area under the Pottangi Assembly segment under Koraput Lok sabha seat. He said the model booths, women booths and the PWD booths were also operating smoothly.
The CEO said the Election Commission has received reports of poll boycott from places over local issues and he has appealed to people to exercise their franchise.
Koraput Lok Sabha seat Congress candidate Saptagiri Ulaka, BJP candidate from Berhampur LS seat Pradeep Panigrahy, BJP’s Kalahandi LS candidate Malavika Keshari Deo, BJD Nabarangpur LS candidate Pradeep Majhi, BJP candidate Balabhadra Majhi, Congress MLA Taraprasad Bahinipati, Congress leader Bhakta Charan Das and other senior leaders were among the early voters.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission (EC) has suspended two polling officials for dereliction of duty. One polling official from Narla Assembly constituency in Kalahandi district and another polling official from Chikiti Assembly segment in Ganjam district have been suspended for dereliction of duty, chief electoral officer (CEO), Odisha, Nikunja Bihari Dhal said.
PTI