Congress leader and former Minister Ganeswar Behera on Sunday knocked at the doors of the State Election Commission (SEC) alleging that the BDO-cum-Election Officer of Pattamundia has declared a panchayat samiti (PS) member elected illegally favouring the wife of a BJD MlA. At a Press meet here, Behera alleged that the Election Officer Prasant Kumar Swain declared Babita Tarei, wife of Kendrapada MlA Kishore Chandra Tarei, elected as PS member of Penthapal panchayat of Pattamundai block fraudulently maintaining that Babita was the only contestant left in the fray as the other contestants had withdrawn their candidatures. Notably, Behera said, Gayatri Sethi and Pramila Mallick were the other two candidates, who had earlier filed nomination papers for contesting for PS member of Penthapala against Babita Tarei. Behera argued that Sub-Section -15 of Rule 11 of PS Election Rules, 1991 stipulates that “a validly nominated candidate contesting for the member of samiti may withdraw his candidature by presenting a written application in person in form No10 to the Election Officer”. In case of Gayatri Sethi, she had not given herself a written application to the Election Officer for withdrawing her candidature.