Bhubaneswar: As many as 37 candidates have remained in fray for four Lok Sabha seats; those will go for voting in the first phase on May 13.
A total of 38 candidates have filed valid nomination papers for Nabarangpur, Berhampur, Koraput and Kalahandi MP seats.
Of whom, one candidate from the Koraput segment withdrew his nomination. Now, a total of 30 male and seven women candidates have remained in the fray for the first phase Lo Sabha poll, official sources said.
While 11 candidates are contesting for Kalahandi LS seat, four male candidates have remained in fray for the Nabarangpur constituency.
Similarly, 10 male and a woman candidates are contesting for Berhampur LS seat and seven men and four female candidates are in the race for Koraput LS segment.
Along with the four LS seats, 28 assembly segments located under these MP constituencies will go for voting on May 13 while voting for remaining LS and MLA seats will be held in three other phases on May 20, 25 and June 1.
Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India today issued a notification for elections in six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly seats in Odisha in the third phase in the State.
According to the notification, the last date for filing nominations is May 6, and scrutiny of the nominations will be conducted on May 7, while the last date for withdrawal of nominations is slated for May 9.
The six Lok Sabha seats going to polls in the third phase in Odisha are Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri, and Bhubaneswar. Alongside 42 Assembly seats spread over 13 districts in the state that will also go to polls on May 25.
State Chief Electoral Office (CEO) sources stated that a total of 94,41,797 electorates, comprising 48,26,375 male voters, 46,14,134 female voters, and 1,288 transgenders in the State, will exercise their franchise in the third phase polling (which coincides with the sixth phase at the national level).
Among the voters, 2,35,764 are in the age group of 18 to 19 years, while 18,42,816 are in the age group of 20 to 29 years, who will exercise their franchise.
The polling will be held in 10,515 polling booths, of which 36 booths are described as auxiliary booths where the voters are more than 1,500.
The official sources further said it has received 2,143 cases of violation of model code of conduct from the six Lok Sabha and 42 Assembly constituencies, out of which 2,128 have been disposed off.
