Watch: Naveen Patnaik walks all the way to booth to cast his vote during Urban Polls

Biswajeet Swain Published On : Mar 24, 2022 at 10:03 AM

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik casted his vote during the Urban Polls-2022 here, today.

Patnaik walked all the way from his residence ‘Naveen Nivas’ to a polling booth at Aerodrome Upper Primary School in ward no. 53 of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), covering a distance of around 200 metres.

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The CM was accompanied by security personnel during the walk. After reaching the booth, Patnaik casted his vote amid tight security.

Later, he came out of the booth and showed the indelible ink mark on his index finger.

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Odisha Urban Polls-2022 commenced as voting began in 106 Urban Local Bodies (47 Municipalities and 59 NACs) and three municipal corporations of the state at 8 am, today. The polling process is scheduled to continue till 5 pm.

Elections to the posts of mayors in municipal corporations and chairpersons of municipalities and notified area councils (NACs) are being held for the very first time. NOTA option has also been introduced for first time in urban polls in the state.

Each polling booth has two EVMs– one for Chairperson/ Mayor election and another for Councillor/ Corporator election.

Over 40.55 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes in the elections. As many as 6,411 candidates are in the fray (569 candidates for Chairperson/ Mayor posts and 5,842 candidates for Councillor/ Corporator seats).

Adequate security arrangements have been made by the Odisha Police for free, fair and peaceful elections.

As many as 100 platoons of police force and 340 mobile patrolling parties along with district police have been deployed in the 106 ULBs for smooth conduct of elections.

A total of 1731 wards of 106 ULBs went to polls. Polling was underway at 3068 booths for this purpose.

Similarly, 105 platoons of police force and 110 mobile patrolling parties along with police officers have been deployed in three municipal corporation areas– Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) and Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC).

A total of 168 wards of the three municipal corporations went to polls at 1407 booths.

Adequate security arrangements have also been made at different strong rooms throughout the urban areas with CCTV coverage to ensure round the clock safety of EVMs.

Around 22,000 polling officials have been engaged for the voting process.

The counting of votes and declaration of results will take place on March 26.