BHUBANESWAR: The winning spree of ruling BJD in the urban local body polls has started with 61 candidates of the party emerging victorious uncontested from different wards. The elected candidates include three from the Berhampur Municipal Corporation. Besides, no nomination papers have been filed in one ward each of Pattamundai municipality in Kendrapara district, Kamakhyanagar NAC in Dhenkanal district and Purusottampur NAC in Ganjam district.
Announcing this at a media conference here on Monday, State Election Commissioner (SEC) Aditya Prasad Padhi said that councillors to these three wards will be nominated by the State government.
The SEC said that 195 platoons of police will be deployed to ensure incident free elections on March 24. Around 30 platoons will be posted in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation while 20 and 10 platoons will be deployed in Cuttack and Berhampur municipal corporations respectively. Besides, 300 mobile parties will be deployed, of which 109 will be engaged in the three municipal corporations.
Stating that over 40.55 lakh voters will cast their votes in the elections, the SEC said campaigning for the three municipal corporations, 47 municipalities and 59 NACs will end at 5 pm on March 22. Polling will be held from 8 am to 5 pm, while counting of votes will take place on March 26. Over 22,000 personnel will be engaged in poll work.
He said that the highest number of 18 candidates are contesting for the post of chairperson of Jeypore municipality. Besides, 16 candidates each are in the fray for the post of Mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation and chairperson of Baripada municipality.As mayors and chairpersons are being elected directly, two EVMs will be used at each booth - one for councillor/corporator and the other for chairperson/mayor, he added.