Bhubaneswar: The five phase Panica selection is ready to start on Wednesday in the midst of strict security amid Maoist posters in the South and West Odisha district urging people to boycott polls and ied devices recover in several places in the past few days.
On the first day, 67.51 lakh would vote for 200 Zilla Parishad, 1668 Sarpanch, 1669 Panchayat Samiti and 22,379 posts members of the ward at 71 of 314 blocks, spread throughout 30 districts, Secretary of State Election (Sehu).
The SEC postponed the selection of Sarpanch in Takarapali Panchayat from Bargarh District after a candidate Saroj Seth died of illness on Tuesday.
The election tends to set a stage for the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly election, with BJD wants to continue its dominance even when BJP and Congress are seen increasing their calculations.
The police have made complicated security settings to avoid unwanted incidents.
More than 37,000 security personnel have been deployed to ensure incident-free polls.
A total of 235 platoon police, 1824 cellular patrol units along with district police officers have been deployed throughout the state for the smooth selection.
There will be extra security at 3,357 sensitive booths in the first phase, said a police officer.
Some voting booths in Kandhamal, religious and Nuabada have been transferred to the threat of Maois, especially after the land mine explosion killed a journalist in the default (February 5) and Grazier livestock in Kandhamal (February 9).