PARADIP: With BJD’s unassailable victory in the panchayat polls, Congress and BJP candidates in Paradip and Jagatsinghpur are sceptical of contesting the upcoming urban local body (ULB) polls with party tickets.
Though the complete results of the rural elections are not declared so far, the Opposition candidates for ULBs are keen on contesting as independent candidates instead of being tagged to the BJP or Congress.
Local BJD leader and former chairman of Paradip Municipality Basant Kumar Biswal said that the party has quite a number of aspirants and election for the post of chairman will be held directly. “We will select the councillor and chairman candidates based on their experience and leadership qualities. There is no chance of accepting people from other parties as our hands are full with party ca didates,” added Biswal.
While local BJP leader Sampad Swain is worried with the current scenario, a youth leader Chinmaya Ranjan, son of Kishore Parida who was the chairman of Paradip Municipality, is also lobbying to get a BJP ticket for the ULB polls. Congress will field one candidate from Paradip Erasama Industrial Bikash Parishad.
As many as 19 wards with 42,116 voters will exercise their franchise to elect members for Paradip Municipality. In the last urban poll, BJD had won 17 seats followed by Congress at two and BJP one. Elections to 106 ULBs including 47 municipalities, 59 NACs and three Municipal Corporations will be held on March 24.