Bhubaneswar: The high-pitched campaign for the third phase of simultaneous elections to six Lok Sabha seats and 42 assembly segments in Odisha ended Thursday.
A total of 447 candidates, including 64 for the Lok Sabha seats and 383 for the assembly constituencies, are in the fray in the penultimate phase of elections on May 25.
Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is contesting from Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, and state ministers Prafulla Mallick, Ranendra Pratap Swain and Ashok Panda for assembly segments are among the important candidates. Also, several sitting MLAs are in the fray.
In 2019, the BJD had won the four Lok Sabha seats of Cuttack, Puri, Keonjhar and Dhenkanal, while the BJP had emerged victorious in Sambalpur and Bhubaneswar.
Intense campaigning was witnessed as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed rallies in Angul and Cuttack and held roadshows in Bhubaneswar and Puri. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Union ministers Rajnath Singh, Nitin Gadkari, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Bhupendra Yadav and the chief ministers of BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan also canvassed for party candidates.
On the other hand, Odisha Chief minister Naveen Patnaik and his close associate V K Pandian also held several roadshows and rallies while campaigning for BJD candidates.
A total of 94.48 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in 10,581 polling booths..
Of these, 2,000 have been identified as critical and 2,000 as model booths, Chief Electoral Officer N B Dhal said.
A total of 121 companies of central forces will be deployed in this phase of the polls.
PTI