It was the day of the Independents in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections on Wednesday. The brisk polling suggested that it was because of the presence of many popular Independent candidates.
Even as all the three major parties, the BJD, the BJP and the Congress, claimed to have good chance to win the polls, Independent candidates sharpened their knives to make a kill. The Independents are from all the three major parties, mostly from the ruling BJD, more particularly in the Ekamra Assembly segment in the city. A number of dedicated youths, who were aspirants for parties’ nominations, were denied tickets by their respective parties. As they already had created fields, they filed nominations as Independent candidates.
They claimed that they would win the polls, the votes of which will be counted on Thursday. In about eight such wards where the BJD has good support bases, its official candidates faced a tough time due to the rebel candidates.
The BJP also encountered bitter infighting with Independents posing a serious problem for its official candidates. However, there was no much problem for the Congress as its tickets did not have many buyers this time.
In all likelihood, the BJD is expected to form the BMC council by roping in its winning rebel and some other victorious Independent candidates. At least in 10 of the BMC’s 67 wards, the Independents gave sleepless nights to official candidates.
This was despite the fact that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, OPCC president Jayadev Jena and Union Minister Srikant Jena and BJP State president KV Singh Deo and Biswa Bhusan Harichandan undertook marathon campaigning for their respective parties.