The elections for Paradip Municipality ended in a peaceful manner on Tuesday barring a few incidents in booths no 5 and 6 of ward no 4. The percentage of polling was 73.01. The overall electioneering was incident-free. The district administration had made elaborate arrangements for law and order situations in the port city. All the wine shops and bars in hotels were sealed since April 5 till the announcement of results on April 8.
The counting of votes will start at Paradip Municipal High School where all arrangements were made. There are 76 candidates contesting the polls in 19 wards. In the last 10 years, the BJD managed to win the civic body polls.
Earlier, the contests were between BJD and Congress, but this year there was a four-cornered fight with BJD, Congress, BJP and a new outfit Paradip Pragati Parishad (PPP) headed by noted trade union leader Santosh Pattnaik having locked their horns.
Interestingly, the BJD had deployed its 20 MlAs, three Ministers and a MP, besides the Chief Minister for campaigning. Similarly PCC president Prasad Harichandan also was the star campaigner for the Congress.
79.43% turnout in Belpahar polls
Polling for the Belpahar Municipality election passed off smoothly on Tuesday. An estimated 79.43 per cent of voters cast votes. There were 73 candidates in fray. According to Election Officer BN Dhal, out of 25,597 voters, 18, 812 cast their votes out of which 10,019 were male and 8,793 were female.
Polling was conducted in 30 booths of 19 wards. In booth number 25 organised at the Jurabaga Ashram School under ward number 16, highest 880 votes were polled and in booth number 24 at Muchbahal Primary School under ward number 15, the lowest 279 votes polled.
Polling was conducted smoothly and no any violence occurred, said SDPO Churamani Naik.