Pleasant weather and drop in mercury contributed to large turnout of voters in the first phase of simultaneous polls in Odisha with reports of 39.30% vote percentage till 1.00 pm at four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly constituencies going to polls on Monday.

Besides brisk polling reported so far, the peaceful, free and fair polling in Naxal-affected Swabhiman Area in Malkangiri district and in Kotia gram panchayat, locked in border dispute issues with Andhra Pradesh, emerged as a major highlight of the first phase polling in Odisha, said officials/

Of the 62.87 lakh voters, 39.30% of them have cast their franchise till 1 pm. The polling booths in Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat at 42.67% recorded the highest polling so far followed by Nabarangpur (42.65%), Koraput (36.64%), and Berhampur (34.97%), said Chief Electoral Officer Sri Nikunja Bihari Dhal.

Kotia Gram Panchayat in Patangi block of Koraput Dist has nine polling stations with 5510 number of voters. Around 31% votes have been polled by 11 am, he said.

Swabhiman Anchal, the erstwhile hotbed of left wing extremism activities in Odisha’s Malkangiri district, saw impressive voter turnout in the elections in the Naxal affected region.

The BSF camp had turned into a polling station in General Election -2019 in view of security issues and threat from the Naxals. But this time, voters are casting their franchise at 23 polling stations instead of at BSF camp due to steady disintegration of left wing extremism in the area.

In 2019, the erstwhile cut off area had voted in a single BSF camp at Jantapai where voters of 9 panchayats had cast their votes. People from far-flung areas like Dhuliput, Sarkubandh, Andrapali & Panasput had to travel several kilometres to reach the polling booth with a lot of difficulties and the voting percentage was a meager 25.77 percent, CEO Dhal said.

With the efforts of the election machinery, the Swabhiman anchal is witnessing a complete reversal of the story this time. Voters of all the 23 booths are queuing in their respective booths to exercise their democratic right of voting, he added.

In the last five years the administration has connected villages by constructing all weather roads and high label bridges. Construction of basic infrastructure has paved the path for setting up Polling stations in villages. The people of the Swabhiman area have reciprocated well to these efforts and the voting percentage has already touched 21 percent by 11 AM, he concluded.