Bhubaneswar, March 24 : Barring stray incidents of violence, election to 106 civic bodies —three Municipal Corporations, 47 Municipalities and 59 Notified Area Councils (NACs) in Odisha was conducted peacefully, State Election Commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi said here on Thursday. The SEC said as per preliminary reports, over 65 percent polling was recorded in 106 civic bodies. While 65 percent polling was recorded in Cuttack Municipal Corporation, the polling percentage was 50 in Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and 47 percent in Berhampur Municipal Corporation.Reports reaching here said the election was marred by sporadic incidents of violence at different places.
A youth was stabbed in front of Booth No 16 in ward no 9 of Dhamnagar NAC in Bhadrak district. The youth was admitted to Bhadrak district headquarters hospital in a serious condition and later shifted to SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack.,Local people sat on a dharna in protest, demanding action against the culprit.Sources said Pradip Meher, the brother of Patnagarh MLA Saroj Meher, was allegedly thrashed by some people while he was distributing money to voters in Ward no 1,2,3 of Kolapada to influence them. But no complainant has been lodged with the police in this regard. In ward no 53 in Cuttack, a man was thrashed by the rival group after they found him distributing money to voters. He was later handed over to Police. In Nayagarh district, the Vice Chairman of Khandapada block was allegedly assaulted by the husband of an Independent candidate in front of the Khandpada women’s college. Police picked up one Debabrata Mohanty, contesting as an Independent candidate for the post of Councillor of Ward No 8 in Bhadrak Municipality after some people alleged that he was distributing money to voters.
Police seized Rs 25,000 from his possession. Tension prevailed in ward no 25 of the Bhadrak Municipal area after two groups clashed. Reports of violence were also received from Pipili. Elections to 106 civic bodies began peacefully at 8 AM spread over 4360 booths of 1825 wards.The SEC said polling was delayed initially at a few places due to certain mechanical problems in EVMs but the process was completed normally later.Election for the post of Chairperson of Umerkote NAC in ward No 8 of Nabarangpur district was postponed due to faulty ballot papers, and will be now held on Friday, he said.Padhi said a decision on repolling in Bhadrak and Dhamnagar would be taken after receiving a report from the District Collector concerned. SEC sources said about 22,000 polling officials were deployed for the smooth conduct of the election. As many as 569 candidates are contesting for the posts of Mayor and Chairpersons while 5842 candidates are in the fray for the slots of Cooperators and Councillors. For the first time, the posts of Mayors and Municipality Chairpersons are being elected directly by the people.
Candidates in three wards in Berhampur Municipal Corporation and 58 wards in other Municipalities and NACs in the state have been declared unopposed. Since no candidates have filed their nominations in one ward each in Pattamundai Municipality, Kamakhyanagar and Purusottampur NAC the state government will nominate candidates to these posts as per the law since these posts belong to reserved category. The State Police had deployed 195 platoons of police forces for the smooth conduct of the election. As many as 300 mobile parties were deployed on the duty of which 109 have been pressed into service in three Municipal Corporations.
