BHUBANESWAR: Even as the ruling BJD steamrolled over Opposition in the urban local body (ULB) elections, the results have thrown up contrasting outcomes indicating split voting by the electorate.
In 105 municipalities and notified area councils (NACs), the BJD chairperson candidates polled over 6,000 votes less than the ward member nominees pointing towards the fact that some of the electorate preferred Opposition chairperson candidates. While the BJD chairperson candidates together polled 8,55,001 votes which comes to 48 per cent, the ward member candidates of the ruling party got 8,61,801 votes which is 50 per cent of the total valid votes polled.
Significantly, the chairperson candidates of the Opposition BJP and Congress polled more votes than the ward members in the 105 ULBs. While the BJP candidates polled 5,15,649 votes (29 pc), the councillors together garnered 4,67,324 (27 pc) of the votes. Similarly, the Congress chairperson candidates polled 2,18,114 votes compared to 2,13,106 votes by the councillor nominees.
The contrasting scenario does not end here. In the three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur, the mayor candidates of the BJD polled more votes than the nominees for the post of corporators. While the BJD mayor candidates in the three municipal corporations polled 3,54,192 votes (51.5 pc), the nominees for the post of councillors got 3,13,275 votes (46 pc).
The BJP mayor candidates also polled 2,08,424 (30 pc) which was more than the 1,69,439 votes (25 pc) garnered by the councillor nominees. The situation is similar for Congress. The mayor candidates polled 86,130 votes (12.43 pc) compared to 81,434 votes (12 pc) by the nominees for the post of councillors.
Another significant outcome from the results is the votes polled by the independent candidates. The independent candidates for the chairperson post polled 1,65,792 votes (9 pc) compared to 1,60,414 votes (9 pc) garnered by the independent nominees for the post of councillors. In the municipal corporations, independent candidates for the post of corporator polled 1,04,604 votes (15 pc). However, the votes polled by the independent candidates for mayor post came down drastically to 18,860 (2 pc).
National spokesperson of the BJD Prasanna Acharya said that voters of the urban areas are educated and they resort to split voting according to their preferences. Split voting is not a new development and is seen in general elections also, he said and added that in places in the ULB elections, the post of chairperson and council have been won by different political parties.