Odisha To Have Simultaneous Polls In Four Phases From April 11

Odisha will have state elections simultaneously with Lok Sabha polls held over four phases, the Election Commission said today. The elections for the state's 21 Lok Sabha seats and 147 assembly seats would be held on April 11, 18, 23 and 29, state Chief Electoral Officer Surendra Kumar said while announcing the dates for the national elections this afternoon.

On the first day, polling will be held in four Lok Sabha constituencies and 28 Assembly seats while on April 18, people of five Lok Sabha segments and 35 Assembly seats will cast their votes.

Polling in the state capital Bhubaneshwar, biggest pilgrim centre Puri and Cuttack will be held in the third phase on April 23.

There are 3.18 crore voters in the state according to the final voter list issued on January 21 and polling will be held in 37,606 booths across the state. The Central Armed Police Forces will be deployed in the Maoist-hit areas of the state.

Besides Odisha, assembly polls will be held along with the Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh.

In the coming elections, Naveen Patnaik, Odisha's longest-serving chief minister, is seeking mandate for a fifth term. In the 2014 assembly elections, his party had won 117 of the state's 147 assembly seats. The Congress had won 16 seats and 10 seats had gone to the BJP.

But lately, the BJP has made inroads in the state, closing the gap in vote percentage and edging out the Congress to become the biggest competition to the Congress.

Mr Patnaik, who partnered the BJP several times at the Centre and the state, has lately maintained his distance from both parties, offering issue-based support.

But last year, he also turned down Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's initiative for a non-BJP, non-Congress Federal Front.