Bhubaneswar: The nomination for third phase elections to six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly constituencies in Odisha commenced Thursday with the issue of notification by the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).
As per the notification, filing of nomination will continue till April 4 followed by scrutiny April 5 and the withdrawal of the candidature has been fixed for April 8 and elections will be held April 23 next.
The six Lok Sabha seats going to polls in third phase are: Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri and Bhubaneswar.
Along with these six Lok Sabha seats, 42 Assembly seats falling under these Parliamentary constituencies will also go to poll April 23. The BJP has announced candidates for all the six Lok Sabha seats. The ruling BJD, however, is yet to announce its candidates in three of the six Lok Sabha seats going to poll in the third phase. They are Cuttack, Dhenkanal and Keonjhar.
On the other hand, the Congress has entered into an electoral understanding with the CPM and left the Bhubaneswar LoK Sabha seat for the party which had announced the name of its secretary Janardan Pati to contest the seat.
The Congress is also yet to announce candidates for the remaining five Lok Sabha seats and party sources said the Central Election Committee of the party will meet in Delhi later to finalise the list of the Lok Sabha as well as Assembly seats which were yet to be released.