Odisha: BJD sweeps Urban Local Bodies polls

In Odisha, the ruling Biju Janata Dal has claimed 76 seats of the chairperson of the Urban Local Bodies for which election results were declared on Saturday. BJD has also won the seats of Mayor in all the three Municipal Corporations. BJD won the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Berhampur Municipal Corporation and Cuttack Municipal Corporation as its two women Mayoral candidates Sulochana Das and Sanghamitra Dalei and Subas Singh respectively defeated their BJP and Congress opponents. Out of the total 109 seats of Mayor and Chairman of Municipal Corporations, Municipalities and Notified Area Councils (NACs) for which votes were cast on Thursday, BJD won 76 seats followed by BJP with 16 seats and Congress with 7.

Counting of votes polled in Dhamnagar Notified Area Council in Bhadrak district will be held later due to the stabbing of a BJP supporter during voting on Thursday, an SEC official said. For the first time, direct elections were held for the posts of mayors of corporations and chairpersons of NACs and municipalities. Though BJD won in almost all the districts, it could not win a single civic body in Nuapada district. As per information, BJD won 1,183 councillor seats out of 1,731. The BJP won 286 seats. Congress could get only 139 seats and the others bagged 116 seats.

BJ,P which put up a disappointing show in the panchayat polls held last month, however managed an impressive performance winning 16 urban local bodies including 3 in Ganjam, the home district of chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The party had won just 3 civic bodies in the 2013-14 civic polls. Congress continued its poor show winning just 7 urban local bodies, most of which came from southern Odisha. In 2013-14, the party had won 15 of these civic bodies.