There was no Maoist threat in the second and last phase of polling in Odisha for 11 Lok Sabha constituencies and 77 Assembly seats on April 17, while stringent security was in place, state election officials said on Tuesday.
"There is no Maoist threat though pockets of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts had certain Left wing extremist (LEW) presence," state Chief Electoral Officer Mona Sharma told reporters in Bhubaneshwar.
Altogether 406 companies (one company comprised 100 personnel) of security personnel were deployed for poll duty with the district magistrates instructed to remain extra vigilant for the next 48 hours, she said. Replying to a question, Sharma said that 991 complaints of violation of the model code of conduct were received.
The Commission would place two EVMs in each of the 740 booths for Morada, Rairangpur and Ekamra-Bhubaneswar constituencies considering the large number of candidates contesting in each of them. More than 16 candidates were contesting in the three constituencies.
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.
A total of 1.55 crore voters would exercise their franchise in 18,692 booths. Arrangements had been made for web casting of the voting process in 329 vulnerable booths of the total 18,692 polling booths.
The 1.41 lakh polling personnel would be in place by Wednesday, she said. The EC had seized 1.8 crore in cash, 48 arms and over 35,000 litre of liquor ahead of polls.
Sharma said 7957 pending NBWs were executed while of the total 15,325 licensed arms, 7106 were deposited with the police ahead of polls. The ECI had banned exit polls during the elections that could influence voters.
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