Bhubaneswar: Close to 65 per cent polling was recorded Thursday in the elections to the 106 urban local bodies (ULB) conducted Thursday, the State Election Commission informed in the evening. State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi said, “These are approximate numbers. The exact voting percentage will be shared tomorrow (Friday).”
Voting was also conducted for the three municipal corporations of Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Berhampur. While Cuttack recorded the highest, 65 per cent polling among the three municipal corporations, the turnout was quite low for Bhubaneswar (50%) and Berhampur (47%). As per the SEC, 40.55 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the ULB polls that were conducted for 1,825 wards in 47 municipalities, 59 NACs and three municipal corporations. A total of 4,360 polling booths were set up.
While in few places voting was delayed to technical errors in EVMs most of the places reported smooth execution of the civic polls. However, polling to the post of chairperson in ward No. 8 of Umerkote municipality of Nabarangpur district was deferred due to wrong ballot papers. The polling will be done Thursday.
The SEC also informed that 73 candidates have been elected uncontested to the posts of corporators/councillors across the state. Out of these 69 belonged to the BJD, one each to the BJP and Congress while two were independent candidates.
Naveen walks to cast his vote
Sending a clear message to the people of Odisha on his health condition, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik walked Thursday from his residence to a polling booth for exercising his franchise in the elections to urban local bodies. Accompanied by security personnel, Patnaik walked from his residence ‘Naveen Niwas’ to the Aerodrome Upper Primary School in Ward No. 53 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), covering a distance of around quarter kilometre. Later, he came out of the booth and showed the waiting camera persons the indelible ink mark on his left hand index finger.
PNN