Third phase polling underway in Odisha

Bhubaneswar: Voting for the third phase of the elections is underway for six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats across Odisha on Saturday.

Polling began at 7 am in Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Bhubaneswar and Puri Lok Sabha seats along with 42 assembly segments coming under the seats.

However, voting was delayed due to  malfunction in EVMs in several boths in Dhenkanal, Cuttack and Keonjhar.

In the third round of the simultaneous elections in the state, over 94.48 lakh voters including  48,26, 375 male voters and 46,14,134 females are eligible to exercise their franchise in 10,581 polling booths across the 42 seats.

The fates of 64 MP and 383 MLA candidates will be sealed in EVM machines.

Key candidates who are in the fray in the third phase of Odisha polls include Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, BJD’s Organisational Secretary Pranab Prakash Dash, and BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra.