Police personnel patrol in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday on the eve of the second and final round of polling in the state. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, April 16: The fate of many heavyweights hangs in balance as the stage is set for the second and final round of polling in the state tomorrow when 1.55 crore voters are expected to exercise their franchise in 11 Lok Sabha and 77 Assembly constituencies spread across 13 districts.

All eyes will be on the coastal belt, traditionally considered the political barometer of the state, where the stakes remain high for all the major parties.

The fractious campaign in this region, comprising 11 districts, often threatened to turn personal. High-voltage campaign was also witnessed in Mayurbhanj and Keonjhar, the two north Odisha districts going to the polls in this round.

The 98 candidates for the Lok Sabha in the second round include Congress stalwart and Union minister Srikant Jena and former Union minister Arjun Charan Sethi of the BJD. The sitting MPs seeking re-election include Prasanna Kumar Patasani, Tathagat Satpathy, Baijayant Panda, Pinaki Mishra, Bhatruhari Mahtab of the BJD and Bibhu Prasad Tarai, who, having quit the CPI, is contesting on a Congress ticket this time.

Among the 747 candidates in the Assembly fray are a host of high-profile leaders and state ministers such as Debiprasad Mishra, Arun Sahu, Maheshwar Mohanty, Pratap Keshari Deb, Badri Narayan Patra, Bijoyshree Routray and Damodar Rout. Deputy speaker of state Assembly Sanand Marandi, government chief whip Prabhat Tripathy and deputy chief whip Sanjay Dasburma are also in the poll race.

Apart from Srikant Jena, Congress heavyweights in the fray include party’s state chief Jayadev Jena, treasurer Chiranjiv Biswal, Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, Prasad Harichandan and Arun Dey. BJP biggies trying their luck in this round are Bijay Mohapatra, Samir Dey, Pratap Sarangi, Manmohan Samal, Ashok Sahu, Prithviraj Harichandan, Rudra Narayan Pani, Surama Padhi, and Droupadi Murmu.

Ama Odisha Party candidates such as Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Kharabela Swain, Sunjoy Hans and Mili Panda are also very much in focus, while cine stars such as Bijay Mohanty, Aparajita Mohanty, Akash Das Nayak and Pappu Pom Pom would wait for the popular verdict tomorrow.

As three of the 13 districts going to the polls tomorrow are prone to Maoist activities, security has been stepped up throughout coastal and north Odisha with 406 companies of paramilitary forces and state police deployed on duty. Of the 18,692 booths set up by the Election Commission, 329 have been identified as vulnerable.

The polling would mark the end of a high-voltage and star-studded campaign led by the top leaders of the contending parties. While BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi addressed rallies to boost the prospects of their candidates, chief minister Naveen Patnaik was the star campaigner of his party heli-hopping through constituencies.

If the Congress and the BJP sought to highlight the numerous scams that had taken place in the state in the last five years, Naveen talked about development. However, in Mahakalpada, where he is engaged in a proxy battle with old foe and BJP stalwart Bijay Mohapatra, he made a rare personal attack on the latter without naming him. He accused Mohapatra of backstabbing his father Biju Patnaik.

In many ways, this was also a battle between Modi magic and Naveen’s charisma with the former seemingly enjoying an edge in certain Lok Sabha constituencies. Given the strong Modi undercurrent, political pundits are expecting upsets in four to five of the 11 Lok Sabha constituencies going to the polls tomorrow. If Union minister Srikant Jena is fighting with his back to the wall in Balasore where the BJP seems to be on an upswing, editor-turned-politician, Tathagat Satpathy is also facing a tough challenge from the BJP in Dhenkanal. This, by all accounts, is going to be a riveting battle.