At least 31 candidates, including one from Congress withdrew from the CMC poll race on Friday leaving a total of 350 candidates to contest the February 6 elections in all the 59 wards of the city.
Most surprisingly on the last day of withdrawal, the Congress nominee Md Wasim Ismail of Ward No 41 decided to recall his nomination papers leaving the party to contest only from 58 wards.
Ismail was picked up by Congress to challenge the district BJD president Pratap Jena’s nephew Kanishka Jena from the locality.
“The party would certainly take stringent disciplinary action against Ismail”, said the district Congress president Prakash Behera adding that the party is
looking for a suitable independent candidate from the ward to throw its weight behind him.
Behera said Ismail, a senior party worker entered into a game plan and we were ignorant about it.
On the other hand, two Biju Swabhiman Dal candidates and 28 independent candidates withdrew their papers on the day, said a release issued by the CMC election officer laxmidhar Mohanty.
Mohanty said with the completion of withdrawal process, 59 candidates each from BJD and BJP, 58 from Congress, 4 CPI, 3 CPM, 1 BSP, 7 Utkal Bharat, 5 Biju Swabhiman Dal, 21 OJM, 1 Aama Odisha and a whopping 132 independent candidates now remain in the fray.
Among the 28 independent candidates, who pulled out their papers on the day, many were considered as rebel candidates of various political parties and they had filed papers as independent candidates after they failed to obtain party tickets.
However, after the withdrawal of these candidates from the race, many official candidates, including that of ruling BJD heaved a sigh of relief.
But the party is facing rebellion in some wards and it would be an interesting tussle in these wards for the rebellious elements in the guise of independent candidates would make the official candidates run for their money.