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BJP MP Aparajita Sarangi (second from right), accompanied by BJP state president Sameer Mohanty, campaigns for the party's mayoral candidate Suniti Mund (extreme left) (Express photo) The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha and the BJP, the main Opposition party, are engaged in a fierce battle in the Bhubaneswar civic poll that is scheduled to be held on Thursday along with elections in 108 other urban local bodies (ULBs) across the state.
The capital, which has the largest urban civic body in the state with 67 wards, will also see two firsts in the mayoral election — the first woman elected to the post as it has been reserved for women, and a direct election.
The contest is being billed as a “prestige battle” between the BJD and the BJP after the saffron party wrested control of the Bhubaneswar Lok Sabha constituency from the ruling party in 2019. The seat had been with the Naveen Patnaik-led party since 1998.
The BJD, however, continues to hold all three Assembly constituencies in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area and will be buoyed by its landslide victory in last month’s rural elections.
“The Bhubaneswar ULB is more of a prestige issue between the parties. For the BJD, it has been a party bastion for the longest time but the BJP winning the Lok Sabha seat in 2019 was like a reality check for the BJD. The BJP now occupies the foremost post in the federal system in Bhubaneswar. While the BJP wants to assert that it can be the ultimate choice for voters in Bhubaneswar, the BJD simply wants to maintain its position in the local body,” said a former BJD leader.
The BJP has fielded author Suniti Mund for the mayoral election. While senior BJP leaders, including many MPs, stayed away, Bhubaneswar MP and former bureaucrat Aparajita Sarangi was at the forefront of Mund’s campaign.
“Bhubaneswar is not only the capital city but also a smart city. But under the leadership of the BJD, not much has been accomplished. The BMC holds importance for us because as elected representatives here we can work in close tandem with the central government to enable and fast-track a lot of things,” said BJP state general secretary Golak Mohapatra. He, however, denied that the results would have an impact on the party’s prospects in the state in the 2024 elections.
Meanwhile, at the hustings, the BJD’s candidate Sulochana Das, the former State Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, worked closely with MLAs Ashok Panda, who is also the science and technology minister, Ananta Narayan Jena, and Sushant Rout. The three legislators represent Assembly seats in Bhubaneswar.
Odisha urban civic polls in numbers
Number of Urban local bodies: 109 (47 municipalities, 59 Notified Area Councils, and three Municipal Corporations)
Number of booths and wards in three municipal corporations: 168 wards and 1,407 booths
Bhubaneswar polls: 289 nominees in 67 wards; 12 mayoral candidates
Number of booths and wards in the rest of the polls: 1,731 wards and 3,030 booths
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