BHUBANESWAR: The BJD bagged nearly 90 per cent of the vice-chairperson posts in municipalities and notified area councils (NACs) besides deputy mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) on Thursday even as the party faced reverses at some places resulting in defeat of its candidates because of cross-voting.
The election of BJD’s Damayanti Majhi to the post of deputy mayor of CMC was relatively easy as the party had a majority of 38 seats out of the total 59. Besides, Congress and BJP corporators boycotted the elections and Majhi was also the only candidate in the race.
However, in the election for the post of vice-chairpersons, the BJD failed to clinch all the 94 urban local bodies (ULBs) in which it had attained council majority. The party won in 91 ULBs while the BJP tally increased by one to seven. Congress and independents won the post in three ULBs each.
Two ULBs of Paradip and Jagatsinghpur played spoilsport where Opposition BJP, Congress and independents joined hands to defeat the BJD candidates. However, in other ULBs, the election was on the predicted path where the party having majority in the council won the post.
Independent candidate Chhabilata Rout was elected as the vice-chairperson of Paradip municipality defeating her nearest rival Prabhati Nayak of the BJD due to cross-voting. The 19-member municipality has eight independent councillors, seven BJD, three BJP and one Congress. All the eight independents in the municipality are backed by Congress leader Bapi Sarkhel’s outfit ‘Ama Paradip, Ama Pragati’.
Sources said that the BJD candidate polled six votes, one less than the party’s tally of seven, indicating that there was cross-voting in favour of the independent candidate. However, there is little chance of officially ascertaining who had cross-voted as the party had not appointed an agent.
Similarly, in Jagatsinghpur municipality, BJP candidate Rajendra Bisoi won the post despite the party having only two councillors out of the total 21 due to support from Congress and independents. While the seat strength of BJD was nine, Congress had won seven and independents three.
However, in Daspalla NAC, BJD-supported independent won the post of vice-chairperson. In the 16 member NAC, BJD had won seven seats while independents were successful in eight wards. BJP had won from only one ward in the NAC.The BJD had won in 74 seats in the chairperson elections out of the total 106, while BJP bagged 16 and Congress seven.