About 64 per cent of the electorate exercised their franchise in the second phase of polls conducted in five Parliamentary constituencies and 35 Assembly segments under them in Odisha on Thursday.

Chief Election Officer Surendra Kumar informed to the media that the overall polling percentage was recorded by 5 pm and the percentage might increase as voters already in queues were giving votes.

Notably, the first phase of polls held on April 11 in four Lok Sabha constituencies and 28 Assembly segments under them in the State had witnessed 73.76 per cent voting.

The CEO said re-polling would be held in six booths for lapses on part of the polling officials during replacement of EVMs and VVPAT machines.

A total of 76.93 lakh voters were expected to cast votes in 9,117 poling stations to select five MPs from Bargarh, Sundargarh, Balangir, Kandhamal and Aska Lok Sabha seats and 35 MLAs from equal number of seats under the five LS seats.

The fate of a total of 35 Lok Sabha and 244 Assembly candidates were sealed with completion of the second phase polls.

Among notable leaders, BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik contested from two Assembly seats, one from his old Hinjili constituency in Ganjam district and another from Bijepur in Bargarh district. Similarly, Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Narasingha Mishra, Ministers Sushant Singh and Snehangini Chhuria, sitting MLA Naba Kishore Das and BJP Legislature Party Leader KV Singh Deo were in the fray. 

Senior MP candidates like BJP’s Jual Oram and Congress’ George Tirkey (Sundargarh LS seat), BJD’s Prasanna Acharya (Bargarh), BJD’s Kalikesh Singh Deo and BJP’s Singita Singh Deo (Balangir) and BJD’s Achyuta Samanta and BJP’s Kharabela Swain fought polls in the phase.