BERHAMPUR: The BJD candidate, Sasmita Behera, was elected as the Chairperson of Khallikote Notified Area Council (NAC) on Friday.
In the last election to the 12-Ward NAC, the BJD councillors had won in 10 Wards and Congress in two. Jyotshnarani Nahak of the BJD was elected as the chairperson. Subsequently in December last year, some councillors brought a no-confidence motion against Jyotshnarani expressing dissatisfaction over her works.
Instead of facing the no-confidence motion, she resigned from the post in the second week of January on health grounds. The resignation was accepted by the Council during the third week of January and the Ganjam Collector decided to hold the election again to the post, which was reserved for woman candidate.
Apparently, two councillors vied for the post which led to groupism in the local unit of the BJD.
The party supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik then directed Ganjam BJD president Debaraj Mohanty to choose the candidate.
Subsequently, Sasmita filed nomination before Khallikote Tehsildar Sarat Chandra Mohapatra, who declared her NAC Chairperson. Speaking to mediapersons, Sasmita said her focus would be on all-round development of the NAC.
