Lok Sabha polls phase 3: Odisha records 61% polling till 5pm

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha recorded 61% polling as of 5 pm on Tuesday in the third phase of polling, which will decide the fate of many star politicians, public personalities making their political debut and old hands trying their luck again.

Till 5 pm, 61% voting was recorded as polling got underway to six Lok Sabha and 42 assembly seats. This includes Ghasipura from where Congress state president Niranjan Patnaik is contesting.

Bhubaneswar city, which is seeing a contest primarily between former Odisha cadre bureaucrat, Aparajita Sarangi, and former Mumbai police commissioner, Arup Patnaik, saw a relatively poor voter turnout.


In Cuttack, BJP candidate and former CRPF DG, Prakash Mishra, who had been unceremoniously shunted out as DGP Odisha after the 2014 polls, is contesting. The BJD has renominated Bhartruhari Mahtab who has won from here for the last five times.

In Puri, Supreme Court advocate and three-time BJD MP Pinaki Misra is seeking re-election, banking on the fact that he had a huge lead last time. Challenging him is BJP national spokesperson, Dr Sambit Patra.

In Dhenkanal, the BJP’s Rudra Narayan Pani is believed to have an advantage over BJD’s Mahesh Sahu and Congress veteran KP Singhdeo. The latter had to take a brief break from campaigning after a sun stroke.

Sambalpur is also turning out to be a tough contest for the BJD which has dropped Nagendra Pradhan and instead nominated chief-engineer turned politician Nalini Pradhan. The BJP has moved its Deogarh MLA Nitish Gangadeb to contest for the LS this time while Sarat Patnaik is representing the Congress.

In India’s iron ore mining heartland, the young Chandrani Murmu is the BJD’s challenge to the much experienced Ananta Naik from the BJP.