Odisha, located on the eastern coast of India, is divided into 30 districts. The state extends from the evergreen Eastern Ghats to the bio-diverse coastal plains. The major cities in Odisha include Bhubaneswar (the capital), Cuttack, Rourkela, Brahmapur, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Kendrapara, Balasore, and Puri.

Political Scenario of Odisha

The politics of Odisha are part of India’s federal parliamentary representative democracy, where the union government exercises sovereign rights and certain powers are reserved to the states, including Odisha. The state has a multi-party system, in which the two main parties are the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the regional, socialist Biju Janata Dal (BJD). The Indian National Congress (INC) also has a significant presence.

As of now, the BJD has the largest number of seats in the Odisha Legislative Assembly. Odisha’s chief minister is BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, who has led a government since March 2000. Other parties represented in the assembly are the BJP, the Congress Party, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The next assembly election is scheduled for May 2024.

Odisha is represented by 21 members of the Lok Sabha, the lower house of the Indian parliament. They are elected from geographic constituencies. In the Rajya Sabha (the upper house of parliament), the state is represented by 10 members who are elected by the legislative assembly.

Voters List in Odisha:

The compilation and maintenance of the voters’ list, also known as the electoral roll, is a crucial aspect of the electoral process in India. The voter list contains the names of all eligible voters within a particular constituency and serves as the basis for conducting free and fair elections.

In Odisha, as in the rest of India, the responsibility for preparing and updating the voters’ list lies with the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of the state. The ECI periodically conducts a process known as electoral roll revision to ensure that the voters’ list is accurate and up to date.