Sabita Rout of BJD won the chairman post by defeating her Congress rival Bandita Parida with a thumping majority for Vyasnagar Municipality.
The municipality consists of 26 wards out of which BJD had won in 16, Congress in nine, while one seat had been won by an Independent candidate. later, the lone independent candidate had joined the BJD.
It was expected the BJD chairman candidate may get only 17 votes out of 26 council members. But in a dramatic way out of the nine Congress councillors, three voted for the BJD candidate. Rout expressed her indebtedness to MlAs PC Gharai and Preeti Ranjan Gharai after winning the covetous post.
In the municipality of Jajpur Town, BJD candidate Bhabaprasad Das was elected unopposed as the chairman. The BJD had won in all the 13 wards of the civic body.