Indus Valley Times

By Swagatika Bhutia

BHUBANESWAR, MARCH 26: Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal continues to maintain its dominance in all formats of elections as it was once again proved on Saturday when the party’s chairperson and Mayor candidates were seen leading in 73 of the 108 urban local bodies (ULBs).

On the other hand, the BJP and Congress were leading were in 16 and 7 ULBs, respectively.

Elections for 108 local bodies were held on Thursday and counting of votes began on Saturday morning and was underway till this report was filed. The independents were leading in 9 ULBs.

In the recently held rural polls, the BJD had won 766 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats at a strike rate of 90 while the BJP and Congress won 42 and 37 ZP seats, respectively, with a strike rate of 5 and 4 respectively.

Strike rate is number of seats won against the number of seats contested.

The BJP and Congress won respectively at the strike rates of 15.23 and 6.66.

In Bhubaneswar, BJD Mayoral candidate Sulochana Das defeated the rival BJP’s Suniti Mund by a huge margin of over 60,000 votes. The ruling party’s Mayoral candidates also won in Berhampur and Cuttack Municipal Corporations.

The BJD attributed the party’s spectacular victory to the party president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s clean image and good works of the government.

“Our CM always thinks and works for the common people. This has been reflected in today’s massive mandate in favour of our party,” said senior BJD leader and minister Ashok Chandra Panda.

Thakur Ranjit Singh, the BJP spokesperson, said the party had performed better in the ULB polls and will maintain this tempo till the 2014 polls.

Congress spokesperson Ganeswar Behera said has party had regained its rhythm and very soon it would appear in a complete new avatar to challenge the BJD’s dominance.

 The elections to the urban local body polls were held amid tight security but sporadic cases of violence on March 24. As per the State Election Commission, 65 percent of voters turned out to cast their franchise and decide the fate of 6,411 candidates.

For the first time, the state has seen direct election to the posts of Chairperson and Mayors in the ULBs.