Banking on poor civic facilities, a corrupt council, lack of development and, above all, involvement of ruling BJD corporators in looting of relief materials, the Congress and the BJP are pinning hopes to form the next Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) council, elections for which are slated for February 6.
On the other hand, encouraged by its performance in the just concluded Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, the BJD is hopeful to retain the council. “The Bhubaneswar result will definitely boost the morale of our party cadres here,” said the Cuttack-Barabati MlA Debashis Samantray
Relatively smaller parties like Odisha Jan Morcha, Aama Odisha, Utkal Bharat and left parties like the CPI(M), the CPI and the SUCI are also getting ready to field their candidates for the CMC elections. Although these parties are not serious contenders, a few of them have capabilities to upset the applecarts of major political parties.
“Unlike in Bhubaneswar, the BJD in Cuttack will be fighting the elections on back foot as the party’s local MP, MlAs and the outgoing Mayor here have terribly failed to live up to the expectations of the people, and the BJD in particular has neglected this millennium city more than anyone else,” said eminent lyricist and a diehard Cuttacki Swarup Naik.
The BJP, however, is emerging to put up a major challenge to the BJD. The party is trying to woo the younger voters in the name and popularity of its Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The party has, in the meantime, enrolled hundreds of college students in the name of Modi.
“The next month’s election will be fought between a corrupt BJD and the people of the city,” said senior BJP leader and former Minister Samir Dey, who was elected from here as MlA for three consecutive terms. The party has already zeroed in on identifying its candidates for all the 59 wards of the CMC.
The Congress, the principal opposition party in the outgoing council, however, is not lagging behind in its campaign. Although the party has not yet decided whether it would field candidates in all the wards, its senior leaders here are claiming that the party will form the next council.
“We will provide a corruption-free, transparent and progressive council that will work sincerely to restore the lost glory of the historic city,” said the City Congress president Md Moqim.
Meanwhile, the SUCI (Communist) has announced the names of its two candidates who would contest the election from Wards 38 and 39. While Deepak Ranjan Das will contest from Ward-38, Nirupama Behera will contest from the other.