FIRST PHASE POLLS FOR APRIL 10 NOTIFIED Sunday, 16 March 2014 | PNS | BHUBANESWAR | in Bhubaneswar

FIRST PHASE POLLS FOR APRIL 10 NOTIFIED

Sunday, 16 March 2014 | PNS | BHUBANESWAR | in Bhubaneswar

A candidate filed his nomination for the Patnagarah Assembly constituency in Balangir district on the first day as the notification was issued on Saturday for the first phase of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections voting for which would be held on April 10.

With the formal notification, the process of filing of nominations gets underway for the 10 Lok Sabha and 70 Assembly constituencies in the State. The Parliamentary constituencies going to polls in the first phase include seven general seats such as Bargarh,  Sambalpur, Bolangir, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Aska and Brahmapur and three reserved seats  for Scheduled Tribes , Sundergarah, Nabarangpur and Koraput.

As per the poll schedule, March 21 is the last date for filing nomination while scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on March 22.  Last date of withdrawal of nomination is March 26. In the second phase notification, nomination would start in rest 11 Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies on March 19.  Polling in these constituencies will be held on April 17 next.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has extended the duration of voting time. The voting which would start from 7 am would continue till 6 pm with duration of 11 hours. However, the voting in Maoist infested areas will start at 7 am and would close at 4 pm. Though the notification for the first phase of elections to the 10 Lok Sabha and 70 Assembly seats has been issued, till date, no political party had announced its total list of candidates. Anyway political activities have intensified after the issuance of the notification inviting nominations.

In all likelihood ,this time both the 10 Lok Sabha and 70 Assembly seats will witness a multi cornered contest as all the three major political parties- the ruling BJD , the Congress and the BJP have decided not to have any alliance with other parties. Besides, the two left parties-CPI and CPM, regional parties like the Utkal Bharat, Aaam Odisha Party, Samata Kranti Dal, Samruddha Odisha and Odisha Jan Manch will be fielding their candidates in the elections.

This apart, AAP, RJD and TMC have also decided to contest the elections making it a multi cornered one in many constituencies. The BJD has nominated candidates in eight of the ten Lok Sabha seats while the BJP has finalised seven seats and the Congress in five seats.