By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, May 23, 2024: The campaigning for six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats, going to polls on May 25, has come to an end on Thursday. Both the BJP and the ruling BJD were engaged in a highly acrimonious campaign in the politically sensitive coastal Odisha, as the outcome of the polling will virtually decide whether the ruling BJD will retain power for the sixth consecutive term or if the BJP will come to power, upsetting all poll calculations.

Elections were already held in Odisha in two phases on May 13 and May 20, covering nine Lok Sabha and 63 Assembly seats, with both the BJP and BJD claiming an edge over the others. After the May 25 polling, the final round of elections for the remaining six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats will be held on June 1, marking the last phase of the elections in the country.

A little over 94.41 lakh voters, including 48,26,375 male voters, 46,14,134 female voters, and 956 transgenders, will seal the electoral fortunes of 64 Lok Sabha candidates and 383 Assembly candidates in six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats, respectively. The six Lok Sabha constituencies going to polls on May 25 are Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Sambalpur, Puri, and Keonjhar (ST). Elections will also be held in the 42 Assembly seats falling under these six parliamentary constituencies.

Prominent candidates whose fate will be decided in the six Lok Sabha seats include Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, who is pitted against BJD’s organizational secretary Pranab Prakash Das in the Sambalpur Lok Sabha seat, six-time MP Bhartruhari Mahtab running as a BJP candidate, BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra from Puri, and sitting BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi, also BJP National Spokesperson, from Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha seat.

In the Assembly elections, veteran BJD leaders and former ministers Prasanna Acharya, Debi Prasad Mishra, two ministers – Ashok Kumar Panda and Ranendra Pratap Swain, four former BJD ministers – Badri Narayan Patra, Chandra Sekhar Behera, Rohit Pujari, and Nrusingha Sahu, as well as former Odisha Congress President Niranjan Pattnaik and Jaydeb Jena, are in the fray and try their luck

State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal stated that voting will be held at 10,551 polling booths spread over ten districts in coastal, western, and northern Odisha. He noted that 20 percent of the total booths are critical, 2,000 are model polling booths, and 1,500 booths are exclusively managed by women polling personnel. The CEO said that so far, 31,500 voters have exercised their franchise through the voting-fromhome program, including 25,240 police and polling personnel deployed in the election.

Some 121 Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) companies have been deployed for this phase, with a majority positioned in the districts of Keonjhar (17), Nayagarh (14), Sambalpur (12), Angul (12), and Cuttack (11). Dhal mentioned that the first two phases of elections in the state saw a higher polling percentage than the 2019 elections and expressed hope that the third phase would also witness a higher voter turnout. No PRATAPGARH, MAY 23 (UNI):- Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav at an election rally in support of party candidate for Parliamentary election-2024, in Pratapgarh on Thursday.

The CEO noted that although the MET forecast no heat wave conditions for May 25, hot and humid conditions will prevail. Asha workers will be deployed at booths with sufficient drinking water and ORS provisions for voters, while Mobile Health Units and ambulance services will be available.

All six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats will witness a multi-cornered contest, but the main battle will be between the ruling BJD and the major opposition BJP candidates. Out of the six Lok Sabha seats, only two sitting MPs, Bhartruhari Mahtab (Cuttack) and Aparajita Sarangi (Bhubaneswar), are seeking re-election as both the BJP and the BJD have dropped the sitting MPs in the remaining four Lok Sabha seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the ruling BJD won four Lok Sabha seats – Cuttack, Dhenkanal, Puri, and Keonjhar, while the BJP secured the remaining two – Bhubaneswar and Sambalpur.

In the 42 Assembly seats going to polls on May 25, the ruling BJD had won the majority in the 2019 Assembly election, as coastal Odisha has been a BJD stronghold for the last five elections. According to a joint survey by the Odisha Election Watch and the ADR, out of 383 candidates in the Assembly fray for the 42 seats, 126 are crorepatis, and 100 have pending criminal cases against them. Similarly, among the 64 Lok Sabha candidates, 28 are crorepatis, and 18 have declared criminal cases against them.

A host of BJP central leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister Arjun Munda, BJP President J.P. Nadda, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, and actress Hema Malini campaigned for the BJP candidates through public meetings and road shows.

On the other hand, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his trusted bureaucrat-turned-politician V.K. Pandian spearheaded the electioneering for the BJD candidates, holding roadshows and addressing a series of election meetings. The Congress campaign was virtually lacklustre, with hardly any central leaders campaigning for the party candidates in the state. The ruling BJD appealed to voters to vote for the Sankh (party symbol) twice, once for the MP and once for the MLA, countering the BJP’s call for a double-engine government in the state.

The BJP targeted Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, accusing him of outsourcing his government and alleging that Patnaik is being controlled by non-Odia officers. The Saffron party also criticized the Chief Minister over the missing Ratna Bhandar key of the Sri Jagannath temple and for suppressing the probe commission report on the issue, arguing that Odia pride is at stake as governance is being taken over by non-Odia officers.

In response, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik highlighted the freebies and various schemes announced by his government. He promised free electricity to 90 percent of the state’s population, BSKY health cards for all, subsidized interest on education loans up to Rs. 10 lakh, subsidized interest on housing loans up to Rs. 20 lakh, and pensions for Women Self Help Group members in the state.

Patnaik had attacked the BJP star campaigners describing them as political tourists who are seen only during the election time and dubbed them as shedding crocodile tears on development while spreading lies among the people of the state. The BJP on the other hand had come down heavily on the Naveen Patnaik government for pushing Odisha 50 years back during his 25-year rule and promised the voters that if voted to power BJP will make Odisha a number one state in the country.