Amidst prevailing uncertainty, the State Election Commission (SEC) on Thursday rescheduled the dates for filing of nomination for Urban local Body (UlB) elections in western Odisha sticking to the poll date on November 22. The last notification for the polls was made on October 21.
However, the SEC had not given any specific reason in its order for the partial modification of its October 21 notification for the elections to the 22 UlBs spread over nine districts in the western region. As per the modification of poll schedule, the SEC has extended the last date for filing nominations from November 1 to November 4.
Similarly, the date of scrutiny of nomination papers has also been extended from November 4 to 7. While the last date for withdrawal of papers is on November 11, instead of November 7, the publication of final valid nominations in the fray is also November 11 instead of November 7.
The SEC in its partial modification order, however, made it clear that there would be no change in the date for the elections, which will be held on November 22 as scheduled. Meanwhile, the Congress has urged the SEC in a memorandum to postpone the entire second phase of elections and call an all-party meeting to fix a new poll schedule as the protest by the lawyers’ bodies has been still continuing in western Odisha demanding High Court Bench.
According to the SEC sources, with the filing of nominations by 125 candidates on the fourth day of filing of nomination, the total number of nominations reached 280. Out of the 22 UlBs, so far there was not a single nomination papers filed in Deogarh, Khariar, Khariar road, Barpali, Titilagarh and Bolangir, the sources added.