A staggering 36,779 candidates have been declared elected unopposed in the Odisha panchayat polls, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Saturday.
SEC Secretary Rabindranath Sahu said the candidates have won the polls unopposed due to their filing the sole nominations.
While 36,222 candidates have won uncontested for ward member posts, 209 won uncontested for the posts of sarpanch, Sahu said.
Similarly, 347 candidates won uncontested for samiti member posts and one candidate emerged victorious for a zilla parishad member post, Sahu added.
The SEC office had notified a final list of 189,099 candidates who were in the poll fray after the withdrawal of nomination papers by candidates on January 21.
Meanwhile, the three major political parties Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Congress and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have intensified their campaigns for the remaining posts scheduled to go on polls from February 13 to February 21.
While Odisha Congress has already released a manifesto for the panchayat polls, the leaders of BJP and BJD have started campaigning in the rural areas canvassing votes for their respective candidates.
The three political parties have declared their star campaigners for the rural polls.
While Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee President Prasad Harichandan has already started the poll campaign, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Ministers Dharmendra Pradhan and Jual Oram will start their poll campaign for their respective parties soon.
--IANS
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