BJD SWEEPS CIVIC POLLS, CAPTURES ALL 3 MAYOR POSTS
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar: The Biju Janata Dal (BJD), led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, has achieved a landslide victory in the urban local body (ULB) elections, results of which were declared on Saturday.
The State Election Commission (SEC) conducted elections for 109 ULBs on March 24. The results of 105 municipalities/notified area councils (NACs) and three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur were declared on Saturday. However, the counting of votes of Dhamnagar NAC was halted due to some reason, sources said.
The BJD has won chairperson seats in 73 municipalities/NACs and Mayor posts in all three municipal corporations — Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur. The BJP remained in second position by winning 16 chairperson posts while Congress won 7 posts and Independent candidates in nine.
Similarly, out of 1,716 councillor seats in the 105 municipalities and NACs, the BJD has won 1,175 seats, BJP got 288, Congress — 134, BSP — 1, CPI — 1 and Independent — 117.
Out of 67 corporator seats in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), the BJD won 48, BJP got 10 and the Congress is in third position with 9. The BJD has won 38 out of 59 corporator seats in Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC), followed by Congress (8), BJP (7) and Independent (6).
In Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC), the BJD won 30 corporator seats while the BJP candidates won 7 seats. Only one Congress corporator candidate won the poll in BeMC whereas Independent candidates won four corporator seats. The BJD Mayor candidates won the seats with a comfortable margin in all three corporation towns.
Thanking the people for re-imposing faith in his party, BJD president Naveen Patnaik, in a tweet, said:
He also congratulated all winning BJD candidates and appreciated the hard work of party workers.
Similarly, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has congratulated all winning BJP candidates and thanked the people who have voted for the BJP in the urban election.
BJD’s Sulochana Das and Sanghamitra Dalei were elected as mayors of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and Berhampur Municipal Corporation, respectively. The Government had this time reserved the Mayor post for women for both Bhubaneswar and Berhampur municipal corporations.
Similarly, BJD candidate and Rajya Sabha member Subhash Singh was elected as Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation.
Sulochana Das, presently the State Commissioner for Persons with Disability, defeated BJP candidate Suniti Mund by a huge margin of over 60,000 votes to become the Mayor of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. Congress candidate Madhusmita Acharya lost her deposit in the election polling 11,006 votes.
In Cuttack Municipal Corporation, BJD candidate Subhash Singh defeated his nearest rival Congress candidate Giribala Behera by a margin of over 45,000 votes. BJP candidate and Odia film actor Sritam Das was relegated to third position securing 49,223 votes.
In Berhampur Municipal Corporation, BJD candidate Sanghamitra Dalei won the Mayor post defeating her nearest rival BJP candidate Sabita Suar by a margin of over 20,000 votes. Congress candidate Manju Rath lost her deposit by securing 6,768 votes.
For the first time, elections to the Mayor post in municipal corporations and chairperson post in civic bodies were held directly in the State.
Sulochana Das expressed her gratitude to people in the State capital for her victory. “I am touched by the love people have showered on me despite being a newbie in politics,” the journalist-turned-BMC Mayor said.
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