Security has been tightened in Kandhamal and four other Lok Sabha seats and Assembly segments where elections will be held on Monday.

The five Lok Sabha seats, which are going to the poll in the second phase of elections in Odisha on Monday are Bargarh, Sundergarh, Balangir, Kandhamal and Aska. The campaign in these segments and 35 Assembly seats falling under them came to an end on Saturday.

Chief electoral officer (CEO) Nikunja Bihari Dhal said: “We are fully prepared to conduct smoothly in these Parliament constituencies. Since these elections are being held simultaneously both for the Lok Sabha as well Assembly, the people would also be voting for 35 candidates for the Odisha Assembly."

Dhal said: “We have taken up extensive preparatory measures. We will be deploying 102 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) in these areas. Kandhamal will have the maximum deployment of the CAPF with 22 companies followed by Ganjam, 20 companies. About 20 per cent of our polling stations are critical. We will deploy the CAPF in all these areas."

Similarly, 16 companies will be deployed in Sundergarh, 14 companies each in Balangir and Bargarh. Besides, five companies will be deployed in Jharsuguda, four in Sonepur and two companies of the CAPF in Nayagarh. Dhal said: “Along with the CAPF, we will also adopt other non-CAPF civil measures, which include webcasting, videography and micro-observers... we will be extremely vigilant during the next 72 hours. The silence period begins today (Saturday). All those outsiders, who are not voters, have to leave the area by the evening."

The CEO said: “The first phase of polling was by and large peaceful except for minor skirmishes in some areas of Berhampur parliamentary constituency. But here in case of the Aska parliamentary constituency, we have seen some serious violence in which a political party worker was killed. We have taken a serious note of it. We are very watchful, I have asked the additional DGP (law and order), who is the state nodal officer, to ensure that there is no violence and whatever incident happens that must be brought under control immediately with the swiftest and stringent possible measures. The Election Commission of India has consistently followed the policy of zero tolerance towards violence.”

The CEO said the police had registered a case in connection with the violence in Aska Lok Sabha constituency and arrested some persons in this connection. “The DGP has submitted a report on the issue,” the CEO said.

He also said articles, including freebies worth Rs 254 crore, had been seized from different places in the state so far. Around 39 lakh females, 40 lakh males and 851 transgenders are going to vote on Monday.

As many as 265 candidates, including 41 women, are in the electoral battle for 35 Assembly seats under these five Lok Sabha seats. Similarly, 40 contestants (40 males and six females) are fighting polls in these five Lok Sabha seats — Bargarh, Sundergarh, Balangir, Kandhamal and Aska.