Very interesting voting practice was seen in Deogarh headquarters town and Rairakhol.
BJP got more councillor seats in Deogarh, but BJD candidate Santi Manjari Dei won the Chairperson post in the old municipality established in the year 1,904. She defeated her nearest rival Madhabi Devi of BJP by a narrow margin of 428 votes.
Deogarh MLA Subash Panigrahi belongs to BJP. Similarly, Sambalpur MP Nitesh Gang Dev is also from BJP and a resident of Deogarh town. Even after 75 years of independence, he is still addressed as ‘Maharaj’ by the illiterate and innocent people.
There is no doubt that he has still his grip over the people of Deogarh. But he remained absent from Deogarh, his home town, all through the election time. Hence, his pocket vote didn’t come in favour of his party.
On the other hand, his wife Arundhati Kumari Devi supported the BJD Chairman and Councilor candidates, but without getting exposed.
“Though she didn't come out of palace, but she called people of different wards and asked them seriously but secretly to vote for BJD,” reliable sources said.
Even her social media postings were not in favour of the BJP. Hence, the party didn’t get the vote of the royal family and faced the debacle in Chairman vote.
However, so far as councillors are concerned, the BJP got six seats out of total 11. Whereas BJD got four seats, one went to independent. Congress drew blank. Hence, it is obvious for people of Deogarh to blame the royal family for the defeat as it lost the seat amidst a favourable scope for the party.
Similar thing has happened in Rairakhol. A neck-and-neck fight was expected between the BJD and BJP candidates. That also happened and finally BJP candidate Sibaram Sahu won the seat by a margin of 826 votes over his nearest rival Sunil Pradhan of BJD.
Similarly, BJD and BJP bagged six seats each in their favour out of total 13. Only one seat went in favour of Congress.
However, sincere party workers blame it on the BJD dissidents for Chairman seat who were denied ticket. “They very cleverly worked to see that Sunil Pradhan is defeated whereas BJP people worked whole-heartedly here and won the seat,” BJD people opined.