Balasore: Electioneering was over Saturday evening for the fourth phase of elections to be held Monday in Balasore district. In a few hours, over 18 lakh voters will exercise their franchise to decide the electoral fate of 12 nominees for the Balasore Parliamentary seat and 66 candidates for the Assembly seats coming under it.
The BJP had mounted an intensive campaign by roping in its star campaigners and Central leaders for their party nominees in roadshows, rallies and door-to-door meetings.
In the Parliamentary seat, former Nilagiri MLA Pratap Chandra Sarangi of the BJP is facing BJD’s Rabindra Jena. The BJD has left no stone unturned in seeking support for the re-election of Jena from this prestigious Lok Sabha seat.
Congress nominee Nabajyoti Patnaik, son of OPCC chief Niranjan Patnaik, has also done his level best to woo voters on the promises made by his party.
The district has seen intensive and hectic rallies and roadshows by stalwarts of the three major parties in the last one week.
While Prime Minister Narendra Modi had campaigned for the BJP nominees, AICC president Rahul Gandhi addressed a rally for his MP candidate and MLA nominees Friday. On the other hand, BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik held a marathon roadshow for his party nominees.
After the campaign is over, MP and MLA nominees of various political parties are now keeping their fingers crossed. The suspense will continue until the votes are counted and the results are out. Winning the Parliamentary seat has been a prestige issue for BJD and BJP.
While there are 12 nominees in the fray for the parliamentary seat, the number of candidates in different Assembly segments is as follows: Nine in Jaleswar; eight in Bhograi; 10 in Basta; 12 in Balasore Sadar; seven in Remuna; nine in Nilagiri; six in Soro and five in Simulia.
The electorate will cast votes in 1,887 booths in 12 blocks in the district. The administration has identified 104 booths as hyper sensitive and 275 as sensitive. Accordingly, security arrangements have been made for peaceful conduct of polls Monday.