High-pitched campaign for two Urban Local Bodies -- Baliguda in Kandhamal district and Champua of Keonjhar district -- ended on Sunday evening.
Polling for these two-newly created ULBs would be held on January 19 and the results are to be declared on January 21. Political parties as well as voters showed extra interest in the campaign as the elections for Notified Area Councils (NAC) are being held for the first time.
Both these ULBs have 13 wards each. In Baliguda 42 candidates are in fray. The BJD, Congress and BJP are contesting in all the 13 wards of Baliguda NAC, while there are also three independents in the fight. In Champua there are 41 candidates for this election. The BJD and BJP have fielded candidates in all the 13 wards, Congress is contesting in eight wards and there are also seven independents.
The ruling BJD seems to have taken both these elections too seriously. Several State ministers, MLAs, MPs and senior leaders were directly involved in the campaign at both places. For more than a week, Minister Bikram Keshari Arukh has been camping in Baliguda to monitor the party’s campaign. Two other Ministers -- Pradeep Panigrahy and Pushpendra Singhdeo -- had reached Baliguda around five days back and stayed there till the end of campaign. Finance Minister Pradeep Amata campaigned on January 16 along with star campaigner of the party, Odia cine star turned Rajya Sabha MP Anubhav Mohanty.
Several other party MLAs as well as Kandhamal MP Pratyusha Rajeswari Devi were also involved in the campaign.
According to sources, a team of around 15 senior Congress leaders from different parts of Odisha camped in Baliguda to monitor the campaign. Mohammed Moquim from Cuttack is heading the party campaign committee in Baliguda. Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee president Prasad Harichandan campaigned in Baliguda on January 16. The BJP has used its cine star member Sritam Das during its campaign in Baliguda. Its newly-installed State president Basant Panda was in Baliguda on January 12. On the last day of the campaign, former minister Surama Padhi was the party’s key campaigner.
In Champua, the BJD has used three of its Ministers -- Finance Minister Mr Amata, Energy Minister Pranab Prakash Das and Rural Development Minister Badri Narayan Patra. Opposition parties Congress and BJP had also deputed their senior leaders for Champua election campaign.
