ROURKELA: With nomination filing coming to an end on Monday, the BJD appeared to have contained rebellion in Sundargarh municipality, but its worry is far from over in Rajgangpur where at least three dissidents filed papers.
Beside BJD candidate Madhuri Lugun, party’s rebel candidates Prem Prakash Prasad, PC Rout and Tanmay Singh also filed nominations for the chairperson post in Rajgangpur municipality. In Sundargarh, former municipality vice-chairperson Ranjana Panda filed her papers as the official BJD nominee. Contrary to the expectations, other party aspirants for municipality chairperson post refrained from filing nominations as Independents.
Election officer for Rajgangpur Abhimanyu Behera said 96 nominations were received for the posts of 20 councillors and 12 for the chairperson post. None of the contenders has deposited party tickets. They have time to submit party tickets till March 9, he added.
The BJP too faced revolt over candidate selection as aspirants went against the party’s decision and filed nominations as Independents in both Sundargarh and Rajgangpur municipalities. In Rajgangpur, two BJP leaders Kuldeep Singh and Jaydev Das filed nominations for the chairperson post. Similarly, Tanaya Mishra, BJP’s official candidate, filed nomination for the chairperson post in Sundargarh.
Ninima Patel, wife of former BJP councillor Himanshu Sekhar Sarangi, also entered the fray as an Independent to queer the pitch for the party. As many as 76 nominations were filed for 19 councillor posts in Sundargarh municipality. For the post of chairperson, six candidates filed papers.
In Birmitrapur, 36 nominations were filed for 11 councillor posts and five for the post of chairperson. From BJD, Sandeep Mishra filed his papers. Sunil Tiwari, Sashi Sagar and Mahendra Bage filed nominations as official candidates of BJP, Congress and BSP respectively.
Arbinda Jaiswal was the lone Independent candidate. Iftekar Ahemad filed nomination as the official Congress candidate in Rajgangpur.