Bhubaneswar, April 23 (Inditop) Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was among the voters who exercised their franchise Thursday soon after polling began for the second and final phase of Lok Sabha and assembly elections, official said.
“Patnaik walked down from his house here, Naveen Nivas, to the polling booth about 100 metres away at about 7 a.m.,” police inspector P.K. Jena told IANS.
“He showed his voter ID card, like any other voter, and went inside and cast his vote,” he said.
“He probably was the first voter in that polling booth today,” he said adding that at that time there was only one other voter who had come to exercise his franchise there.
Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) is seeking yet another term in the assembly.
Orissa has more than 14.5 million voters, including about seven million women, in Orissa. There are 84 candidates for the 11 Lok Sabha seats and 688 contestants in 77 assembly constituencies in the final phase of elections in Orissa.