In a miraculous manner, with only four BJP councillors out of the total of 23, the saffron party claimed the Dhenkanal Municipality Chairman post after party candidate Sudhanshu Dalei was elected through lottery after the voting ended in a tie.
Out of the 23 councillor, 18 were present. Dalei and his rival Independent candidate Rudranta Dalei got nine votes each, resulting in a tie.
Eleven councillors from the Congress, five from the BJP and one out of six BJD councillors were present during the voting.
The by-election for the post had been necessitated after previous incumbent Indramani Behera was defeated in a Congress-sponsored no-confidence motion on August 1. Surprisingly, he too had been elected with just eight BJD councillors’ support whereas the majority mark stood 12.
Following an Orissa High Court order, the State Election Commission decided to conduct the by-election.
On the other hand, in a major setback to the Congress, eight out of the 11 party councillors resigned from the party.