The by-election to the office of the Mayor of Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) would be held on January 22. This has been ordered by the State Election Commission (SEC) in Bhubaneswar.
Notices to the CMC corporators would be issued on January 14 to take part in the by-election. The nomination, scrutiny, withdrawal, election, counting and declaration of result would be made on the same day, i.e., on January 22. Publication of the name of the mayor in official gazette would be made onJanuary 25.
The post of the CMC Mayor fell vacant on December 29 last when the then incumbent Anita Behera put in her papers after it was revealed that she had obtained a ration card under the NFSA to receive subsidised food grains.
Since the post of the CMC mayor is reserved for a Scheduled Caste woman for the current term, the by-election would be a showdown limited to five other corporators of this category. They are Baishali Behera and Ta’poi Sethy of the Congress and Sulochana Sethy, Meenakshi Behera and Mamata Behera of the BJD.
The CMC Council now has 58 members after Anita Behera also quitting her position as corporator. The ruling BJD with 36 corporators is all set to regain the mayoral position.