The Congress, which is crippled by intense intra-party fighting among its senior leaders in the state, has won majority seats in 11 urban local bodies while Bharatiya Janata Paty (BJP) has put up a dismal show, not being able to bag a single ULB.
In the current phase of ULB polls, 66 ULBs had gone for voting on Thursday. But the counting of votes for Vyasa Nagar municipality where re-polling was conducted in one word on Friday, will be done tomorrow.
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In another feather in its cap, the ruling party also retained majority in Berhampur Municipal Corporation, the lone corporation to have gone for the polls in the current phase.
Out of the 65 ULBs, for which results were announced today, no party has got a clear majority in 13 ULBs. Among these, BJD and Congress have done better than their competitors in three ULBs each, and BJP is ahead of its rivals in one ULB. Similarly, independents are in position to form councils in 3 ULBs while no group is in position to form the council in three others because of fractured mandate.
In the previous election held in 2008 in these 65 ULBs, while BJD won majority in 41 ULBs, Congress and BJP had bagged 9 and 11 ULBs respectively. Overall, BJD candidates were victorious in 495 wards as against Congress (309) and BJP (181). In the current elections, BJD candidates have won in 642 seats, while Congress has bagged 318 wards and BJP only 47. Similarly, independents with an overall tally of 101 hold the key to formation of councils in few ULBs.
Thus, a comparison with the outcome of the previous election clearly depicts substantial increase in the BJD’s tally while it is a very marginal gain for Congress. On the other hand, BJP, which had fought the last ULB polls being in a tie-up with BJD, has seen a sharp decline in its fortunes in the state.
The outcome of the ULB polls holds significance for all political parties to gouge their strength ahead of assembly election in 2014.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik congratulated all the winning candidates his party and thanked the voters for reposing faith in his party.
The results, however, has worked only to increase fissures in the state Congress unit with senior leaders blaming each other for this less than satisfactory performance by the party.
"I believe the floor management of the party was poor. I am not at all happy with the performance of the party,” said Lalatendu Bidyadhar Mohapatra, a senior congress leader.
Former Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) head, Niranjan Patnaik said candidates’ choice for the polls could have been better.
PCC chief Jayadev Jena said, the party will analyse the results and find out the lacuna.
The BJP blamed the BJD government for using state machinery to win votes. "We were expecting a better result than this. But I must say that the BJD used the state machinery in most placed to win the polls,” said Kanak Vardhan Singhdeo, state president of BJP.