The urban local body (ULB) elections, conducted in the State after a gap of nine years, passed off peacefully in most districts except stray incidents of violence. Jajpur municipality recorded highest 79 pc polling. In Nabarangpur district, election was withheld and repolling announced due to technical glitches in EVM in Umerkote.
As per reports, in Umerkote municipality, polling at booth 14 in Ward 8 was withheld due to fault in the EVM machine which apparently reflected names of chairperson candidates of Nabarangpur municipality. The error was detected after 372 voters had already cast their votes. Election officer Ram Chandra Majhi said there will be repolling in ward 8 on Friday and all 1,296 voters will cast votes. However, election in Nabarangpur district otherwise was incident-free.
Koraput district witnessed around 60 per cent (pc) voter turnout in four ULBs of Jeypore, Koraput, Sunabeda and Kotpad. According to preliminary reports, 63 pc polling was recorded in Koraput municipality, 52 pc in Jeypore municipality, 55 pc in Sunabeda municipality and 70 pc in Kotpad NAC. The administration had made elaborate arrangements and security was beefed up in booths termed sensitive.
In Jeypore, there were reports of a commotion over fake voters in Sambar Tota school and a minor clash between two groups in Jaynagar area. Many voters from Ward 21, 22 and 26 alleged that they were unable to exercise their franchise as their names were missing from the voters’ list. The situation was brought under control after police intervened.
Kendrapara municipality saw many first-time voters this time. Of 36,718 voters, around 4,000 were newly added to the list. As a result, many candidates of various political parties were banking heavily on young people who flocked to the meetings and rallies, said Dhiren Sahoo, a senior BJD leader. Kendrapara municipality recorded 74.31 pc polling on the day.
In Kalahandi district, Bhawanipatna Municipality reported just over 50 pc polling with 51.38 pc voter turnout. Dharmagarh, Junagarh and Kesinga NACs reported 74.70 pc, 71.45 pc and 70.99 pc voting respectively.The polling was more or less peaceful in all the four centres, except for a stray incident of tension between BJD and BJP workers in Junagarh NAC.
Polling was overall smooth in Malkangiri district too. Malkangiri municipality recorded 63.61 pc voter turnout and Balimela NAC 74.17 pc. Elections for Sundargarh, Rajgangpur and Birmitrapur ULBs also concluded peacefully amid low polling percentage compared to the just concluded rural elections in Sundargarh district.
Administration sources said the three municipalities recorded average polling at about 62.66 pc, a drop of about 16.34 pc against rural polls.Jharsuguda saw 68.36 pc polling in Jharsuguda municipality, Brajrajnagar municipality and Belpahar municipality in the district.