Bhubaneswar, May 12 (Reporter) The popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be put to the test as four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly seats in Odisha go to polls on Monday. Both Modi and Naveen during the electioneering have claimed that they will form the government in the state and it is now up to the voters to decide the fate of these two parties. Electioneering in Odisha was never so much charged as the Prime Minister, the star campaigner for BJP candidates, and Naveen Patnaik for the BJD candidates went on attacking each other in election meetings. Modi has announced that the countdown of the exit of the BJD’s government which has been outsourced by the Chief Minister has started and the BJP Chief minister will be sworn in in the state on June 10 paving the formation of a double-engine government to protect the Odia pride. On the other hand, Patnaik has dubbed the Prime Minister’s claim as day dreaming and asserted that with the blessings of Lord Jagannath and love and affection of the people of the state, BJD will form the government for a record sixth time in a row. Elections to four Lok Sabha out of 21 and 28 Assembly seats out of 147 will be held on May 13 in the first phase in the state spread over eight districts in Southern and Western Odisha. A little over 62.84 lakhs voters including 30,96243 male and 3,87,771 besides 635 transgender will exercise their franchise on Monday to decide the electoral fortunes of 37 Lok Sabha and 243 Assembly candidates in 7303 polling booths. Chief Electoral Officer Nikunja Bihari Dhal said out of 7303 polling booths,1264 have been declared as critical polling booths while 662 are model booths and 715 booths will be managed exclusively by women. He said 53,000 polling personnel were deployed in the elections and webcasting will be done in 60 percent of booths. Dhal said the female voters have outnumbered the male voters in this phase. The four Lok Sabha going to polls are Berhampur, Nabarangpur, Kalahandi, and Koraput.Apart from the four Lok Sabha , 28 Assembly constituencies under these parliamentary constituencies will also go to the polls. Dhal said about 104 companies of Central Armed Forces(CAPF) including 31 CRPF,39 BSF, and 27 Armed forces from other states will be deployed. A maximum 25 companies will be deployed in Maoist-infested Malkangiri district followed by 18 companies in Koraput and 17 companies in Kalahandi district. The voting timing will be from 7 AM to 6 PM, the CEO said, adding that in some polling booths the poll timing has been changed keeping the local conditions in view. According to Odisha Election Watch, out of 243 contesting candidates in 28 Assembly seats,113 have declared criminal cases pending against them while 70 candidates are crorepatis. In the four Lok Sabha seats, out of 37 candidates, 13 have criminal cases pending against them and they are mostly from the three major political parties- BJD,BJP and the Congress. As many as 12 candidates, four each from the BJD,BJP and the Congress are crorepatis, the highest assets of Rs.41 crore being declared by Malavika Devi of BJP contesting the Kalahandi Lok Sabha seat. The campaign in this phase was high pitched one with a host of BJP leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh,BJP National President J P Nadda, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari,Assam Chief Minister Himant Biswa Sharma, former Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Dev and Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai campaigning for party candidates. On the other hand, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and bureaucrat turned politician V K Pandian,the most trusted man of Patnaik, had campaigned for the BJD candidates. The Opposition Congress campaign was a lacklustre one as no prominent central leaders visited the state to campaign for the party candidates, leaving the field to the party candidates. Prominent congress leaders in the fray in the 28 Assembly seats are Odisha Congress President Sarat Pattnayak (Nuapada),former Railway Minister Bhakta Charan Das (Narla), bureaucrat turned politician B K Pattnaik ( (Digpahandi) and sitting MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati ( Jeypore). Among the ruling BJD candidates in the Assembly elections,Planning and Convergence Minister Rajedra Dholkia(Nuapada) and two former ministers Dibya Shankar Mishra(Junagarh) and Pushpendra Singdeo (Dharagarh) are in the fray. On the other hand ,actor turned politician and former BJD MP Sidhant Mohapatra,who had quit the party and joined the BJP is contesting the Digapahandi Assembly seat. In the four Lok Sabha , sitting MP from Koraput Saptagiri Ulaka is seeking re-election while former BJD Minister Pradeep Panigrahi who was expelled from the party, is contesting the Berhampur Lok Sabha seat as BJP candidate .He is pitted against BJD’s Bhrugu Bauxipatra who had recently quit the BJP and joined the BJD. In the 2019 elections, the ruling BJD had won two of the four Lok Sabha seats and 22 of the 28 Assembly seats while the BJP had won one Lok Sabha and three Assembly seats. The Congress had secured one Lok Sabha and two Assembly seats.One Assembly seat went to an independent candidate. Political pundits said although all the four Lok Sabha and 28 Assembly seats have multi cornered contests, the real battle for the ballots would be mostly confined to the ruling BJD, the BJP and the Congress party...////...