Alleging that the recently concluded urban local bodies (UlBs) elections, which were held in a phased manner, has given undue favour to the ruling BJD, the Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM) on Thursday urged the State Election Commission not to allow this ‘unethical’ move further.
Submitting a memorandum to the State Election Commissioner (SEC) Ajit Tripathy, party secretary general Jagneswar Babu said, “UlB polls this year conducted in a phased manner has given undue advantage to the party in power,
as BJD members including the Chief Minister could concentrate in a small number of UlBs each time for ensuring the victory of BJD which would not have been possible, had the elections been conducted at a time.”
The party too urged the SEC to initiate strong and exemplary action against Finance Minister
Prasanna Acharya for his alleged statement violating the poll code before the Bhubaneswar and Cuttack Municipal elections so that the party in power will not try to repeat the same mischief again.
“It is a matter of great shame that the Finance Minister has lost his sense of responsibility and declared in public that as he is the custodian of the State finance and no financial assistance will be given to any municipality where BJD councillors will not get elected,” said Babu.