Close on the heels of successful completion of urban local body (UlB) polls, State Election Commission (SEC) expressed its readiness for holding elections to the 25 left out UlBs spread over nine W Odisha districts by November next as the situation started limping back to normalcy following the postponement of agitation by Central Action Committee (CAC) of lawyers.
State Election Commissioner Ajit Kumar Tripathy in a letter to Chief Secretary Jugal Kishore Mohapatra sought to know as to whether the situation in the nine districts in western Odisha was conducive to conduct elections to the 25 UlBs. Tripathy said that the SEC was ready to initiate the process of elections by notifying the date by third week of October to be completed by end of November next. Meanwhile, the Urban Development department has asked the District Collectors and SPs of the concerned nine districts to submit reports on the law and order situation in the urban bodies. The State Government would inform the SEC on the issue of holding of UlB elections soon after the receipt of the reports, said Urban Development Minister Debi Prasad Mishra.
Talking to newsmen, Mishra, however, said that the Government would also consider the timing of the polls. Meanwhile, the State Government has already notified the appointment of administrators in the left out 25 UlBs to look into the day-to-day administration in the absence of elected councils. The SEC had to postpone the polls in the UlBs following an agitation on the demand of establishment of permanent HC Bench in western Odisha and boycott of polls by all political parties.