The ruling BJD got a jolt in its bastion here after it lost student body polls in most of the colleges held on October 8. On the other hand, Dilip Ray played a pioneering role in giving the BJP an edge over other parties as its supported candidates won in four college unions out of seven.
According to sources, though as per the lyngdoh Commission guidelines, the candidates were not any official candidates of any political party, but the indirect sponsorship was there. While Ray was directly monitoring the elections for the BJP sponsored candidates, MlA Sarada Nayak and Minister Subrat Tarai were monitoring the elections for the BJD. So in the steel city, the college elections were treated as a fight between Ray on one hand and Nayak and Tarai on the other. The parties laid much emphasis on the college polls as they feel that the outcome would have a bearing on the UlB polls as well as in the general elections in early 2014. Notably, UlB polls were not held for the Rourkela Municipality due to the lawyers’ strike.
The results of the college polls showed that while the BJP candidates occupied students’ unions of Government (Autonomous) College, Municipal College, Gandhi Mahavidyalaya and Priyadarshini Mahavidyalaya, the BJD occupied in Rourkela College and SG Women’s College. A Congress supported candidate won in Ispat College. Notably, last year in all most all colleges, the BJD supported candidates had own. Former Biju Chhatra Janata Dal president Anil Sagar who had recently joined BJP expressing his confidence on Ray was managing the floor for the BJP candidates in different colleges.
As per the lyngdoh Commission guidelines, the nomination papers of all the candidates in Neelasaila Mhavidyalaya and in Vedavyas College were rejected. A clash between the supporters of Congress and BJD occurred near Sector-5 while Congress supporters in the Ispat College were in a victory rally. An FIR was lodged in Sector-7 police station in connection with the case. To avoid further tension, police personnel were deployed in different college campuses and various parts of the city on the oath taking ceremony. While the BJP is jubilant here over the election results, the BJD camp has seemingly gone into sulk.