Now, all eyes are on the Congress party’s filing of names for the post of Jagatsinghpur municipality chairman’s post. The selection of candidate for the post is extremely crucial and some party insiders revealed that the decision of the candidate selection would be tougher.
While district’s top Congress leaders say that the choice will be made by Chiranjeev Biswal, who was leading the UlB poll campaign here and brought the party’s victory after one decade, but the latter has passed the buck on newly elected Congress councilors. But sources added that any name that fielded would have to get Biswal’s clearance.
The three prominent names doing rounds for the top post are that of ward number 15 councilor Biplab Choudhury , Subash Sahoo, councilor from ward number 4 and Dilip Singh, councilor elected from ward 5. The election for the chairman post would be held on September 30. The Congress has got a clear majority by obtaining 12 from 21 wards.
But focus is on Congress leader and former municipality chairman Satyabrata Mohapatra, who had remained silent during electioneering process and allegedly had skipped party’s mammoth election meeting held at S K Academy ground where PCC president Jayadev Jena, Union Minister Srikant Jena and many top Congress leaders were present.
However, he jumped into the election campaigning just 48 hours before the elections, while sources added that following his tireless efforts, Congress bagged at least three wards and received a clear majority. Hence, certainly, he will be taken into confidence before selecting the chairman candidate.
Nonetheless, many Congress supporters expressed view that any name that is fielded for the chairman’s post will be based on a consensus of Biswal and Mohapatra. Meanwhile, Biswal has called all elected councilors visiting Bhubaneswar for a consensus candidate for the chairman post.