Phase-2 Voting : 7% Voting till 9 am in Odisha, Technical glitch in EVM delay voting in several booths
Bhubaneswar: The voting for the Phase-2 of the General elections comprising 95 Parliamentary constituencies across 11 states and one union territory began on Thursday. In this phase polling is being held in 38 seats in Tamil Nadu, 14 seats in Karnataka, 10 in Maharashtra, eight in Uttar Pradesh, five each in Assam, Bihar and Odisha, three each in Chhattisgarh and West Bengal, two in Jammu and Kashmir and one seat each in Manipur and Puducherry.
Union ministers Jitendra Singh, Jual Oram, Sadananda Gowda and Pon Radhakrishnan, Bollywood actress Hemamalini, Raj Babbar, former prime minister H D Deve Gowda and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran, A Raja and Kanimozhi are among the 1,600-odd contestants in the second phase of Lok Sabha polls.
In Odisha polling is being held for five Lok Sabha and 35 Assembly seats. A total of 76,93,123 voters of which 39,45,025 are male, 37,47,493 female and 605 transgenders, will exercise their franchise. However, voting has been delayed in several booths owing to technical glitches in EVMs.
While 35 candidates are in the fray for the five Lok Sabha seats of Bargarh, Sundargarh, Balangir, Kandhamal and Aska, 244 candidates are contesting for the 28 Assembly seats of Padampur (General), Bijepur (General), Bargarh (General), Attabira (SC), Bhatli (General), Brajarajnagar (General), Jharsuguda (General), Talasara (ST), Sundargarh (ST), Biramitrapur (ST), Raghunathpalli (SC), Rourkela (General), Rajgangpur (ST), Bonai (ST), Biramaharajpur (SC), Sonepur (General), Loisingha (SC), Patnagarh (General), Balangir (General), Titlagarh (General), Kantabanjhi (General), Baliguda (ST), G. Udayagiri (ST), Phulbani (ST), Kantamal (General), Daspalla (SC), Boudh (General), Bhanjanagar (General), Polasara (General), Kabisuryanagar (General), Khallikote (SC), Aska (General), Soroda (General), Sanakhemundi (General) and Hinjili (General). For these five Lok Sabha Seats 35 candidates includes five women are in fray, while of 244 candidates for 35 Assembly seats, 25 are women.