The ruling BJD on Monday grabbed the vice chairman posts in all the three urban local bodies (UlBs) in Sundergarh. Though in the beginning, the BJD was not sure to win the Rajgangpur municipality vice chairman seat as a dissident councillor filed his candidature, the official candidate won comfortably in the end. Party sources said BJD councillor of Rajgangpur Ashok Das was named the party candidate for the post. But soon after the announcement, Sudesh Barla, also a BJD councillor, filed his nomination as an Independent.
The BJP’s Narayan Prasad Modi also filed nomination for the post. However, Ashok Das won the seat securing 11 votes in the 20-member municipality. Barla and Modi got 6 and 3 votes, respectively. Similarly, in the 19-member Sundergarh Muncipality, BJD candidate Ranjana Panda defeated his BJP rival Sanjukta Nayak by a margin of 10-6 votes as 3 Congress councillors abstained from voting.