Being reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman, the race for the post of Mayor of the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) is limited to only four aspirants. The Mayor election is scheduled to be held on Thursday.
Of the 59 CMC wards, only four wards (21, 39, 45 and 51) are reserved for this category and all these wards have returned BJD candidates. The BJD is going to form the CMC council as it has won in 36 wards in the recent elections to the civic body.
While Anita Behera has won from Ward-21, Sulochana Sethy has won from Ward-39, Meenakshi Behera from Ward-45 and Mamata Behera from Ward-51. looking at the vast margin of her victory, Meenakshi has an upper hand and, moreover, she has crushed her Congress rival by polling nearly 60 per cent of votes. Since Meenakshi and Sulochana have won from the wards that come under the Choudwar-Cuttack Assembly constituency, BJD chief Naveen Patnaik might choose either of them as Mayor. Sulochana may also be chosen for the prestigious post as she is the only graduate from among the four SC women making it to the council this time.
On the other hand, the Barabati-Cuttack MlA Debasis Samantaray might throw his weight behind Anita Behera as she is the only contender from his segment for the Mayor post. Samantaray is known to be close to Naveen Patnaik and it is due to his efforts that the party won in as many as 21 wards out of the 31 coming under his constituency.
However, Mamata could be the dark horse to stake her claim for the top post for the simple reason that she belongs to the Cuttack Sadar Assembly segment and never ever from this segment has anyone occupied the post of Mayor or Deputy Mayor. She had sought into limelight and drew sympathy during the run-up to CMC polls when she was physically attacked by a former corporator.