)
Voting opened today for the simultaneous second and last phase election to 11 Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies in Odisha.
Over 1.55 crore voters are eligible to record their choices in 18,692 booths, for which 1.41 lakh polling personnel have been requisitioned.
Spread over 13 districts, the voters would decide the fate of 98 candidates, including 11 women, in the Lok Sabha elections and 747 candidates, including 65 women, in the Assembly.
Arrangements had been made for web casting of the voting process in 329 vulnerable booths of the total 18,692 polling booths.
The 98 candidates include Congress stalwart and Union minister Srikant Jena and former Union minister Arjun Sethi of the BJD, are in fray for Jajpur, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Kendrapara, Puri, Jagatsinghpur and Bhunaneswar Lok Sabha constituencies.
A host of MPs including Tathagat Satpathy, Baijayant Panda, Pinaki Mishra, Bhatruhari Mahtab (all BJD) are also seeking re-election to the Lok Sabha.
Among the 747 candidates in the Assembly election are state ministers Maheshwar Mohanty, Pratap Keshari Deb, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijoyshree Routray and Damodar Rout.
State Chief Electoral Officer Mona Sharma said that there was no Maoist threat in the election, though pockets of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts had the presence of certain Left wing extremists.
Altogether 406 companies of security personnel have been deployed for poll duty.
