Bhubaneswar: With an appeal to the people of Odisha to come out to vote 'fearlessly', the state's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Mona Sharma said the Election Commission is fully prepared for the first phase polls to be held on April 10.
"As most of the districts going to polls in the first phase are affected by Naxalites, we have deployed security forces more than double deployed during the previous election," Sharma told OTV.
Notably, more than 50 of the 70 Assembly segments which go to the polls tomorrow are in Maoist-affected areas.
The EC has engaged 156 companies of Central Para Military Force (CPMF) besides about 27,000 personnel of the state police to ensure free and fair elections.
Tight security arrangements have been taken in the belt where the extremists have given a call for poll boycott.
In vulnerable polling stations, the security forces would operate in cluster manner, Sharma added.
Taking into consideration local situation, the timing of polling has been reduced by two hours in 56 Assembly segments.
While the polling time will be 7 AM to 4 PM in 56 Assembly segments, for 16 other segments it will be 7 AM to 6 PM.
An electorate of 1,36,46,989 voters, including 66,62,309 women, is eligible to exercise their franchise on April 10.