At least 170 more candidates filed their nomination papers on the last day on Saturday for the 59-ward Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) elections scheduled for February 6. A total of 229 candidates have filed their papers in the last four days.
With this, the total number of candidates wishing to participate in the polls mounted to 399. Nearly 150 of them are Independent candidates, who are mostly dissidents of major political parties after they were denied party tickets. The nomination papers would be scrutinised on Monday and the final list of candidates would be known only after the expiry of withdrawal deadline fixed at 3 pm on January 24.
While all the three major parties, the BJD, the Congress and the BJP, have fielded candidates in each ward, other parties like the Odisha Jan Morcha, Aama Odisha, Utkal Bharat, CPI(M), CPI, SUCI (C), Bahujan Samaj Party and Biju Swabhiman Party have also fielded candidates in a few wards.
Meanwhile, the State Election Commissioner on the day appointed poll observers and financial observers for the CMC elections. While four IAS officers and one OAS officer are appointed to oversee the polling, including observance of model code of conduct, three OFS officers are appointed to look into poll expenses of candidates.