In the Rayagada Municipality, while out of 24 wards the BJD won 21, the Congress had to remain content with three.
In the Gudai NAC, the BJD won in 10 seats whereas one independent candidate won out of a total 11.
Similarly Gunupur saw the BJD clinching 14 seats, Congress one and Independent candidates winning two out of total 17 seats.
There were seven rounds of counting for 53 booths in Rayagada Municipality. Out of total 45,977 voters, 30,208 cast their votes. In ward 11, there was lowest polling of 50 per cent and in ward 3, highest of over 70 per cent votes were reported.
The highest margin of 796 votes was seen in case of winning BJD candidate laxmi Kumari Pattanaik who defeated Congress candidate Palli Mamata, while the lowest margin was 41 in case of winning BJD candidate Hanumant Rao who defeated Congress candidate M Goureswar Rao.
It is speculated that BJD winning candidate V Gouri Jayanti from ward 10 will be the next chairperson and Prof Niranjan Prasad Buxipatro, eldest son of former municipality chairman late Krushna Chandra Buxipatro from ward 3 may be the vice chairperson.
BJP had fielded 17 candidates but its performance was extremely discouraging. BJP’s prospective candidate from ward 8 Dr Prem Kumar Santoshray could only get 273 votes and was defeated by BJD candidate Abdul Jalil by 193 votes.
NCP, which had fielded four candidates, also cut a sorry figure. Kalinga Sena and Utkal Bharat parties were totally discarded by the voters as their polling was extremely poor. One wonders why the BSP did not field candidates this time though in previous elections it had fielded candidates at several wards.
The Congress won from all the wards which were reserved for scheduled tribes (ST). In ward 1, Basanti Ulaka, in ward19, Tuni Mandangi and in ward 24, Sabita Jakaka won. Interestingly all the winning Congress candidates are ST women.