Despite the high-voltage campaign led by none other than Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, the BJD narrowly managed to retain the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) by winning in just 36 seats of the 59-ward council, the results of which were declared on Friday.
As predicted, the BJD could not repeat its recent Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) performance and also fared poorly, unable to retain as many seats as it had bagged in the 2009 elections. last time, the BJD had won in 37 out of 54 seats. The Congress, on the other hand, improved its tally by winning nine seats and the credit for it goes entirely to city president Md Moqim, who singlehandedly held the fort for the party.
The Independent candidates won in 10 seats, while the BJP could manage to get three as the results of 58 wards were declared on the day. The BJP tally may increase to four as the result of Ward-58 could not be announced as an EVM could not display the voting registered in it. While the defect EVM has registered a little over 600 votes, BJP candidate Rajkumari Swain has already registered a lead of over 1,100 votes from her nearest rival.
like the new political parties of the Odisha Jan Morcha (OJM), Aama Odisha, Utkal Bharat, Biju Swabhiman Dal, the left parties of CPI(M), CPI and SUCI too failed to open their accounts in the polls. BJD leaders were left red-faced to know that many high-profile candidates lost the elections. While Kanshka Jena, nephew of BJD district president and Mahanga MlA Pratap Jena lost in Ward-41, Athagarh MlA RP Swain’s nephew Amarendra Pratap Swain lost in Ward-11. Similarly, other BJD heavyweights like Dharmesh Naik (Ward-1) and Pradeep Kumar Behera (Ward-57) also bit dust.
With the announcement of the results, the BJD camp initiated preparations for the election of Mayor and Deputy Mayor. The Mayor post is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman and there are only four seats (Wards-8, 21, 45 and 51) reserved in this category. All these wards have returned BJD candidates and any one of them would be the next Mayor.