Around 36,000 manpower will be deployed to ensure free and fair polls in the last phase of Odisha’s election, which will be held on Saturday.

The six Lok Sabha seats—Mayrubhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur—and 42 Assembly seats under its jurisdiction will go to polls on Saturday.

The key leaders who are going to face the test on Saturday include BJP’s Kendrapara Lok Sabha candidate and its national vice president Baijayant Jay Panda, BJD’s Kendrapara Lok Sabha candidate Anshuman Mohanty, former Union minister and BJP candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat Pratap Sarangi, former Union minister and Congress candidate for Balasore Lok Sabha seat Srikant Jena, Odisha’s revenue minister and BJD’ Lok Sabha candidate for Mayurbhanj Sudam Marndi and former PCC president Niranjan Patnaik. Patnaik is contesting from the Bhandaripokhari Assembly constituency in Bhadrak.

The number of violent political incidents has increased. Twenty-one per cent of the total booths have been declared sensitive.