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BJD sweeps Odisha urban local body polls as BJP makes impressive inroads
BJP which put up a disappointing show in the panchayat polls held last month, however managed an impressive performance winning 16 urban local bodies including 3 in Ganjam, the home district of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The party had won just 3 civic bodies in the 2013-14 civic polls.
The ruling Biju Janata Dal won in 76 urban local bodies including 3 municipal corporations as counting of votes neared its end on Saturday, but it was the opposition BJP which posted impressive gains by winning at least 3 civic bodies in the BJD bastion of Ganjam.
BJD won the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Berhampur Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Municipal Corporation as its two women Mayoral candidates Sulochana Das and Sanghamitra Dalei and Subas Singh respectively defeated their BJP and Congress opponents. The BJD also won the chairperson posts in 73 notified area councils or municipalities.
Counting of votes polled in Dhamnagar Notified Area Council in Bhadrak district will be held later due to the stabbing of a BJP supporter during voting on Thursday, an SEC official said. Nearly 65 per cent of the total 40.55 lakh voters had on March 24 exercised their franchise in the elections to the civic bodies. For the first time, direct elections were held for the posts of mayors of corporations and chairpersons of NACs and municipalities.
“BJD’s landslide victory in the ULB elections has been possible by the blessings of the people of #Odisha and the efforts of workers,” said chief minister Naveen Patnaik. Though BJD won in almost all the districts, it could not win a single civic body in Nuapada district.
BJP which put up a disappointing show in the panchayat polls held last month, however managed an impressive performance winning 16 urban local bodies including 3 in Ganjam, the home district of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The party had won just 3 civic bodies in the 2013-14 civic polls.
Congress continued its poor show winning just 7 urban local bodies, most of which came from southern Odisha. In 2013-14, the party had won 15 of these civic bodies.
BJD won 1,183 councillor seats out of 1,731. The BJP won 286 seats. Congress could get only 139 seats and the others bagged 116 seats.
In a separate development, the police in Sonepur district registered a case against Kairu Swain, the Biju Janata Dal councillor from Ward no 9, for firing gunshots in the air to celebrate his win.
The polls were overdue in most of the municipalities since December 2018 and in some others from July 2019. The five-year term of 65 civic bodies including the Berhampur Municipal Corporation, had expired since September 29, 2018, while the tenure of 48 civic bodies including Bhubaneswar, Rourkela, and Sambalpur municipal corporations expired in February 2019.
The polls were delayed after a PIL was filed in the Orissa High Court in 2018 alleging that the reservation of seats for SC, ST and OBC was more than 50 per cent in the 2012 panchayat elections, 2013 civic polls and the 2017 panchayat elections, a violation of the 2010 SC order. The HC in 2018 asked the government not to exceed 50 per cent reservation of seats for the SC, ST and OBC in the non-scheduled areas.
