Bhubaneswar: Barring some sporadic incidents, polling was peaceful for five Lok Sabha constituencies and 35 Assembly segments in Odisha Monday with 69.19 per cent voter turnout recorded as of 11.55pm, as per Election Commission’s Voter Turnout App.
The murder of a man near a booth in Sarsara in Bargarh district created tension among polling parties and voters there but the local police said the incident was “not related to the polling”.
Voting started at 7 am in Aska, Kandhamal, Bargarh, Bolangir and Sundargarh parliamentary constituencies along with 35 assembly segments within the jurisdiction of these Lok Sabha seats.
Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are being held simultaneously in Odisha.
Voting in a booth in the Kantamal Assembly segment under the Kandhamal parliamentary constituency was stopped after some people created a disturbance, Odisha Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) NB Dhal, said.
A presiding officer in the same assembly segment was taken into custody by police after some irregularities were found at the polling station, Dhal said.
He said that polling in some booths in Bhanjanagar in Ganjam district and Daringbadi in Kandhamal were affected for a brief period due to a power outage triggered by thunderstorms and rain.
However, voting resumed in these booths after the power supply was restored, he said.
A woman polling official felt faint in a booth under the Sundargarh Lok Sabha seat, another official said.
Asked about the murder of a man near Sarsara under the Sadar Police Station limits in Bargarh district, the CEO said, “It is not related to any poll violence. The crime took place outside a polling station.”
He also said, “The police have managed the situation well as the incident created tension in the booth. Polling was not affected,” he said.
The deceased was an auto-rickshaw driver, and some people attacked him when he was taking a few voters to a polling booth, a senior officer said.
“The man was hacked to death. Personal enmity was the reason behind the crime,” he said.
The family members of the deceased, however, claimed that it was a political murder.
“Barring a few incidents, polling was peaceful in all the 9,162 booths,” Dhal said, adding that the voter turnout will increase as the voting continued in some booths beyond the stipulated time of 6 pm.
Of the five Lok Sabha seats, the highest polling was recorded in Bargarh at 75.49 per cent, followed by Bolangir at 71.46, Kandhamal at 70.37, Sundargarh at 67.74 per cent and Aska at 60.78 per cent.
Among the 35 assembly constituencies, Bhatli in Bargarh logged the highest polling at 79.23 per cent, while the lowest was 58.21 per cent in the Hinjli segment in Ganjam.
Dhal said that industrial assembly segments, like Brajarajnagar and Jharsuguda, tribal and Maoist-hit areas and urban localities, like Rourkela, witnessed good voter turnout.
The BJD and the BJP exuded confidence in winning a maximum number of seats in this phase of polling.
“With the blessings of people of the five parliamentary constituencies, we are winning 30 of the 35 Assembly seats and will do better in parliamentary seats as compared to the 2019 polls,” BJD spokesperson Sasmit Patra said.
BJP spokesperson Jatin Mohanty, in a press conference, claimed that his party will win in all five Lok Sabha seats in this phase of elections and 25 of the 35 Assembly seats for which voting was held Monday.
In the 2019 elections, the ruling BJD had won two of the five Lok Sabha seats and 26 of the 35 Assembly segments.
The BJP bagged Bolangir, Sundargarh and Bargarh Lok Sabha seats five years ago and secured four of the 35 Assembly segments.
Odisha has 21 Lok Sabha constituencies and 147 Assembly seats.
Of them, polling has so far been completed for nine parliamentary seats and 63 Assembly segments.
PNN & Agencies