Election to Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) will be held on January 8 next, announced the State Election Commission (SEC) here on Friday.
BMC, tenure of which ends by December this year, will have a new administrator to oversee the day-to-day functioning till new corporation in complete shape takes over the charge by February.
Addressing a press conference here, SEC Ajit Kumar Tripathy said election will be held for 67 wards in BMC from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on January 8 while the election for mayor is scheduled on January 17 and the election for deputy mayor will be held on February 5.
As per the election calendar, the process of nomination will commence from December 16 and nominations will be scrutinised after a week on December 23.
Candidates could withdraw nominations within next three days by December 26. SEC will publish the final list of candidates on the same day.
Announcement of election to BMC was delayed on account of cyclone and flood rehabilitation and other technical obstacles such as delimitation and re-organisation.
Election will be held in 666 booths whereas number of voters who will exercise their voting rights stands at 690239.
According to SEC, of the 67 wards, 34 will be reserved for women. Of the 34, three are for Scheduled Caste, two for Scheduled Tribe, 10 for socially and economically backward classes and another 19 are for general category candidates.
With the announcement of the elections, the model code of conduct has come into force and it will remain in force till January 9.
Mr. Tripathy said government cannot initiate any new work within BMC limit and neighbouring gram panchayats.
The Commission has appointed two IAS officers as poll observers while three Odisha Finance Service officers have been designated as expenditure observers. The ceiling for expenditure is Rs. 50,000.
