 "BJD sweeps civic body polls")
The NACs which went to polls on April 7 aare Daspalla, Dharmagarh, Balimela, Tusra, and Redhakhol while three municipalities are Paradip, Belpahar and Sunabeda.
Opposition Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) secured 11 and 12 wards respectively out of total 129 wards spread over the eight civic bodies. The BJD candidates won in 103 wards while independents were victorious in three seats.
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Congress was not able to open account in three urban bodies -Daspalla, Tusara and Rairakhole, and no BJP candidate won in Dharmagarh notified area council, sources said. This is the second popularity test for the ruling BJD since the Kandhamal Lok Sabha by-poll after the party returned to power for the fourth consecutive time with a massive majority in the assembly elections last year. The results also reaffirmed the party's claim of undiminished popularity despite several of its leaders being named in the ongoing chit fund scam investigation by CBI.
BJD president and chief minister, Naveen Patnaik expressed his satisfaction after the poll results.
"I express my gratitude to the people in eight ULBs and thank BJD workers and leaders for the victory," he said.
State Congress president, Prasad Harichandan thanked the voters in all the eight civic bodies and accepted the defeat. "We are identifying the weakness in the party," he said, adding that the party would work harder to put up better show in the panchayat polls scheduled to be held in 2017. BJP, on the other hand, blamed the party's failure on the money power of BJD used in the polls to secure votes. "I have never seen any party using choppers during campaigning in urban polls. The BJD has done this," the party's state unit head, K V Singhdeo said.
The chief minister and several senior cabinet ministers had campaigned for the ruling party in Paradip area this time.