A total of 3,94, 810 voters in all the 59 wards of the city would exercise their franchise in the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) elections scheduled on February 6.
Exercising his powers under Section 23 of the Odisha Municipal Corporation Rules of 2003, the Cuttack ADM laxmikant Mohanty, who is also CMC election officer, on Wednesday, notified that the nomination papers of the poll aspirants shall be received at the Vikash Bhawan here on all working days from January 13 to January 18 between 11 am and 3 pm.
While scrutiny of the papers would be held on January 20, a candidate is permitted to withdraw his papers before 3 pm on January 24. Polling will be held at 422 booths across the city between 8 am and 5 pm on February 6 and counting of votes will be done at the Bhubanananda School of Engineering here on February 7, said a release issued by the district administration here on Wednesday.
It may be mentioned here that the number of wards in the CMC this time has increased to 59 from the earlier 54. Out of the total seats, 30 (50.84 per cent) seats are reserved for women, including 17 for general, eight for OBC, four for SC and one for ST. Among the remaining 29 seats, 18 are unreserved while eight seats are reserved for OBC and three for SC candidates.
Meanwhile, after the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Wednesday, the political parties have now diverted their attention towards the CMC elections.
Massive lobbying and canvassing have begun to procure party tickets by poll aspirants here while the houses of senior political leaders of the three major political parties, the BJD, the Congress and the BJP are witnessing heavy gatherings.