Bhubaneswar: Voters queued up in considerable numbers at polling stations to exercise their franchise as voting to elect 28 Assembly and four Lok Sabha members in the first phase in Odisha began at 7 am Thursday. In many places electronic voting machines (EVMs) had glitches resulting in some delay in polling.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer, seven percent voter turnout was reported till 9 am.
Jypore Congress MLA candidate Taraprasad Bahinipati and his wife Meenakshi waited for nearly an hour to cast their votes at booth number 191 set up at Lalsahi Primary School in Jeypore as the voting was delayed due technical glitches in the EVMs.
According to reports, three EVMs at Malkangiri, one at Bijiput in Berhampur city, booth no. 150 at Jeypore, booth no.77 at Lamataput in Koraput, booth no 176 at Bissamcuttack in Rayagada, two booths at Chitrakonda and MV 37 village in Malkangiri district and some booths in Kalimela area have developed techinal glitches.
A total of 60,03,707 voters, including 29,72,925 male, 30,30,222 female and 560 third gender, will exercise their franchise on Thursday at 7,233 booths in the first phase of the four-phase elections in the State.
The first phase polls is being held in four Lok Sabha seats – Kalahandi, Nabarangpur, Berhampur and Koraput along with 28 Assembly constituencies – Nuapada, Khariar, Unerkote, Jharigaon, Nabarangpur, Dabugam, Lanjigarh, Junagarh, Dharmagarh, Bhawanipatna, Narlam, Chhatrapur, Gopalpur, Berhampur, Digapandhi, Chikiti, Mohana, Paralakhemundi, Bissam Cuttack, Rayagada, Laxmipur, Kotpada, Jeypore, Koraput, Pottangi, Malkangiri and Chitrakonda today.
