India
Odisha State Assembly Election, April 2019
Cyclone Fani, May 2019
On 3 May 2019, category four cyclone Fani made landfall on the coastal areas of Odisha and West Bengal in the east of the country. In Odisha, 64 people died and 1.2 million were evacuated to 9,177 shelters (World Bank 2019; Jena and Kishore 2021). Cyclones in the region are becoming more frequent and more difficult to predict, falling outside the usual season—and in future a higher proportion are expected to be intense— due to climate change (Dasgupta and Priyadarshini 2019).
Impact on the electoral process
On 6 May 2019, the Election Commission of India (ECI) postponed the election in Odisha’s Patkura constituency by 60 days due to the destruction Fani caused to coastal districts (Bisoyi 2019; India Today 2019). The date of election, namely 20 July, was determined once authorities could make an assessment of the damage (ECI 2019; Ambarkhane 2024). The risk of election materials being destroyed led the ECI to remove Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) from the districts of Jagatsinghpur and Gajapati in Odisha state (India Today 2019).
Odisha’s voter turnout was 73.31 per cent, compared to 73.65 per cent turnout in the 2015 Stae Assembly election (Ambarkhane 2024).
Bibliography
Ambarkhane, S., ‘Natural Hazards and Elections in India: Lessons in Adaptation and Mitigation’ (Stockholm: International IDEA, 2024), <https://doi.org/10.31752/idea.2024.4 >
Bisoyi, S. K., ‘Odisha: ECI postpones Patkura assembly election in the aftermath of cyclone Fani’, Times of India, 6 May 2019, <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/elections/assembly-elections/odisha/news/odisha-eci-postpones-patkura-assembly-election-in-the-aftermath-of-cyclone-fani/articleshow/69204693.cms>, accessed 24 September 2025
Dasgupta, A. and Priyadarshini, S., ‘Why Odisha is a sitting duck for extreme cyclones’, 28 May 2019, Nature India, <https://www.nature.com/articles/nindia.2019.69>, accessed 24 September 2025
Election Commission of India (ECI)/Press Information Bureau, ‘Schedule for General Elections to fill Vacancy from 96-Patkura Assembly Constituency in the State Legislative Assembly of Odisha where poll was adjourned’ (press release), 4 July 2019, <https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=191224>, accessed 24 September 2025
India Today, ‘EC nod for shifting EVMs in Odisha over Cyclone Fani fears’, 1 May 2019, <https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/evm-odisha-fani-1514371-2019-05-01>, accessed 24 September 2025
Jena, P., and Kishore, J., ‘The Fani: A Case Study Of Odisha Disaster Management’, in A. N. Gupta et al. (eds), Health Adaptation And Resilience To Climate Change And Related Disasters (New Delhi: National Institute of Disaster Management, 2021), <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/358009339_THE_FANI_A_CASE_STUDY_OF_ODISHA_DISASTER_MANAGEMENT>, accessed 24 September 2025
World Bank, ‘What states can learn from Odisha in disaster preparedness and mitigation’ (interview with Deepak Singh, Lead Disaster Risk Management Specialist, World Bank), 14 June 2019, <https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2019/06/14/odisha-fani-disaster-preparedness>, accessed 24 September 2025
Severe Storms and Hurricanes
