BHUBANESWAR: There is no stopping the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD juggernaut in Odisha as the ruling party continued its winning spree in the urban local body polls, bagging all three municipal corporations, including the Mayor seats, and 73 chairpersons of the 105 municipalities and notified area councils (NACs), results of which were declared on Saturday.
Fresh after the severe drubbing in the recently concluded rural polls, the Opposition BJP and Congress fared no better in the urban areas managing only 16 and seven chairperson posts respectively while independents and others won nine.
Sulochana Das of BJD will be the first woman mayor of Capital city Bhubaneswar. She defeated her nearest BJP rival Suniti Mund by more than 60,000 votes while Congress candidate Madhusmita Acharya was a distant third. Significantly, the poor show of the Congress can be gauged from the fact that the party failed to open its account in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation council.
BJD candidate in neighbouring Cuttack, sitting Rajya Sabha MP, Subash Singh also defeated his nearest Congress rival Giribala Behera by more than 45,000 votes. BJP’s Sritam Das was relegated to third position in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation.
Similarly, Sanghamitra Dalei of the ruling party was elected as the mayor of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC) by defeating her nearest rival Sabita Suar of the BJP with over 20,000 votes. A notable feature of the BeMC result is that AAP candidate C Priyanka polled 7,453 votes which is more than Congress candidate Manju Rath who got 6,768 votes.
The BJD has won majority of seats to form councils in 95 ULBs out of the total 108 (including the three municipal corporations), though it has won mayor/chairperson posts in 76 civic bodies. While BJP has established majority in six ULBs, Congress and independents are ahead in four and three respectively.
In the last elections held in 2013-14 for 102 ULBs, the BJD had won 80 while the Congress was in the second position with 13. BJP had won three ULBs and independent/others had won seven.
BJD bulldozes BJP, Congress in urban polls
The urban body polls were held on March 24 with direct election of mayors/chairpersons in departure from earlier system of councils electing them. This now has led to a situation in many ULBs where chairpersons belong to a different party while the council is dominated by other parties. Such a situation has cropped up in several ULBs including Titlagarh, Dhenkanal, Dharamgarh, Junagarh, Phulbani, Keonjhar, Balimela, Udala, Nabarangpur and Sundargarh municipalities/NACs where BJP has won the posts of chairpersons but the council will be in the control of BJD. In Jeypore, the Congress has won the post of chairperson while BJD has achieved majority in the council. Similarly, in Bhadrak and Barpali, chairperson posts have gone to independents but the council will be with the BJD.
The opposite scenario has cropped up in Angul municipality where the chairperson post has been won by BJD but the council majority is with the BJP.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik thanked the people of Odisha for the tremendous victory of the party in the panchayat and ULB elections. Stating that the victory will inspire BJD to continue with its good work, the Chief Minister congratulated the party workers for the victory.