BARGARH/DHENKANAL: It was a clean sweep for ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the urban local body polls for Attabira NAC in Bargarh district. The party won 11 of the 12 wards in the NAC while retaining the post of chairperson for the second consecutive term.
The NAC which has 13,520 voters witnessed 74 per cent turnout during polling held on April 3. As many as four candidates were in the fray for the post of chairperson of the NAC, which was reserved for ST category this time. Banamali Bariha of BJD secured the post of chairperson by defeating Congress’ Sabita Bhue by a margin of 4,828 votes. Bariha got 6,565 out of 10,049 votes.
Similarly, as many as 39 candidates were in fray for the post of councillors across 12 wards of the NAC. Barring ward no 1, won by Congress candidate Deepak Ray who secured 343 votes out of 718 votes, the rest 11 were won by BJD candidates.
Attabira MLA, Snehangini Chhuria said, “I want to express my gratitude to the voters for helping us win the elections with a massive number of votes. Under the leadership of our Chief Minister Naveen Pattnaik, we have implemented several development schemes in Attabira NAC including the implementation of Awas Yojana and Jaga mission. We have bridged the gap between the state government and the voters all these years. The victory today is a reflection of the faith and trust of the Attabira voters on BJD.”
Attabira was elevated to NAC in 2013 and the Congress had grabbed the post of chairman in the first urban local body election. However, the BJD captured the post of chairman by winning all the 12 seats of the NAC in 2018. While the elections to the NAC were viewed as test of popularity for the political parties ahead of the 2024 polls, the BJD had been striving hard to retain the post of chairperson.
The ruling party also registered landslide victory in elections to Hindol NAC polling for which were held on April 3. Sub-collector Sibananda Swain said the post of chairperson of the NAC was won by Keshab Pradhan of BJD who polled 4,347 votes against 3,923 secured by his rival from BJP. Similarly, of the 16 council seats, the ruling party bagged 11 and the BJP five. Congress could not win any seat in the NAC.
At least 87 per cent polling was registered in the elections.