76 in fray for Paradip civic body polls

As many as 76 candidates from several political parties including few independent aspirants will be contesting in the Paradip civic body polls scheduled to be held on April 7. 15 independent candidates withdrew their papers during the withdrawal of nominations on Thursday.

Interestingly BJD’s two rebel candidates will fight elections as independent candidates in ward number 2 and 6. The duo revolted candidates are former Paradip BJD president Kishori Parida and one Jharana Swain. Both used to be close aides of Paradip legislator and

Excise Minister Damodar Rout. Official reports informed that Paradeep Municipality comprises 19 wards. The BJD, BJP and Congress have fielded candidates in each ward, while Paradip Bikash Parishad has fielded 14 candidates. There are five independent candidates in fray. Total 93 candidates had filed nominations for the municipal polls. From them, 15 aspirants withdrew their papers on Thursday and one candidate’s nomination paper was rejected during scrutiny of nominations held on March 23.