The Puri constituency in the state of Odisha went to polls on May 25. As many as 3.32 crore voters in the state were eligible to exercise their franchise in the Lok Sabha elections this year, which are being held alongside Legislative Assembly elections in the four states of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, and Sikkim.
Overall, 96.8 crore electors were eligible to vote in this year’s Lok Sabha polls, which happens to be the biggest electoral exercise in the world.
Background to the Lok Sabha polls:
Always a high-voltage contest, the Lok Sabha elections this time saw the BJP-led NDA take on a largely unified opposition in the form of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking a third term in power.
The run-up to the polls this time was chaotic, with the opposition crying foul about crackdowns by central agencies against its leaders, many of whom face cases or are incarcerated, something the BJP alleges is the consequence of their corruption.
The BJP, meanwhile, faced heat from opposition parties for being a disproportionate beneficiary of the controversial electoral bonds scheme, with over 50 per cent (over Rs 6,000 crore) of proceeds going to the saffron party.
The two sides also traded hate speech charges in the run-up to the polls, with the Hassan sex scandal and a fake video involving Amit Shah also becoming major boiling points. Meanwhile, PM Modi continued to claim that the BJP-led NDA would cross 400 seats, against Rahul Gandhi’s estimate of 180 for the saffron camp.
As far as poll issues are concerned, the idea of a developed India, questions surrounding employment, and calls for a socio-economic caste census dominated poll rallies.
What happened in the 2019 elections?
Puri constituency had 1562331 eligible voters in 2019, but only saw a voter turnout of 72.72%.
BJD candidate Pinaki Misra won the Puri constituency in the 2019 elections, with a margin of 11714 votes.
BJD was not a part of either of the two main blocs—the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).