Elections 2019: Scrutiny of nominations for 2nd phase polls ends, notification for 3rd phase today

Bhubaneswar: The Electoral officers on Wednesday rejected the nominations of eight candidates from 5 Parliamentary constituencies and 38 candidates from 35 Assembly constituencies going to polls in the second phase of elections on April 18.

Parliamentary and Assembly segments under Bolangir, Bargarh, Kandhamal, Aska and Sundergarh Lok Sabha constituencies will go to polls during the second phase of elections on April 18.

“A total of 45 candidates had filed nominations for 5 Lok Sabha seats in Odisha. Out of them, nominations of eight candidates were rejected for various reasons,” informed State Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Surendra Kumar.

Similarly, out of 299 applications from 35 assembly constituencies, 38 nominations were rejected and 261 were found to be valid, added the CEO. The last date of withdrawal of nomination papers for second phase is March 29.

Earlier, the Election Commission of India (ECI) had rejected the nomination of one candidate out of 29 applications from four Lok Sabha seats, including Kalahandi, Nabarangapur, Berhampur and Koraput after the scrutiny of nominations for first phase polls. Similarly, the nominations of 36 assembly candidates were rejected out of a total of 239 applications from across 28 Assembly constituencies. Today is the last date of withdrawal of nomination papers for first phase polls.

On the other hand, the notification for third phase of Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the State will be issued today. The ECI will release the notification for six Parliamentary constituencies including Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Dhenkanal, Cuttack, Puri and Bhubaneswar and 42 Assembly constituencies under the mentioned Lok Sabha segments which will go to polls in the third phase on April 23.

The last date for filing of nominations for third phase polls is April 4, while scrutiny of nominations will be held on April 5. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is April.