Campaign for urban bodies' poll ends

On the last day of campaigning for municipal and notified area council (NAC) election in the state, political parties tried hard to woo voters as all of them believe the outcome of the poll is likely to have an impact on their prospects in the upcoming assembly elections due in May 2014.

The run up to the election witnessed intense campaigning by three major parties, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, his main opponents, the Congress and BJP, which has seen a resurgence among party cadres following announcement of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate at the Centre.
 

Apart from senior leaders criss-crossing the state to seek votes for their respective party candidates, cine stars and celebrities were also engaged by various parties during the campaign.

Today, the two main rivals, BJD and Congress focused all their strength and energy on Berhampur municipality, which is the lone municipal corporation going to poll in the current phase.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik campaigned for BJD candidates nominated for Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) while the Congress took the help of its state observer B K Hariprasad to steer its campaign meetings.

The polls for 40 NACs, 25 municipalities and one municipal corporation (Berhampur) will be held between 8 am to 5 pm on September 19 and counting of votes will be conducted the next day. Election for the posts of chairpersons is slated for September 30. The poll process would be completed on September 22 with the election of vice-chairpersons. The five-year terms of these urban local bodies end on September 30.

Initially elections were slated to be held for 91 urban local bodies. But as political parties in western Odisha decided to boycott the election to press for their demand for a permanent bench of the High Court in their region, polls for 25 urban local bodies in nine districts were postponed by the State Election Commission (SEC).