Big three yet to finalize nominees for rural polls
The ruling BJD and Opposition Congress and BJP are giving finishing touches to their nominees’ list for the zilla parishad polls, even as candidates filed their nomination papers across the state for the second day. January 12 is the last date for filing of nominations.
BJD insiders said party bosses had almost finalized their nominees for the 854 zilla parishad seats. “Ticket distribution should be over on Tuesday,” a party leader said. The response from the Congress and the BJP was more or less similar. Both parties are also in the final stages of ticket distribution.
“Expect for a few tickets in Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts, our party has finalized its list of candidates for other seats,” Congress spokesperson Arya Gyanendra said. He said his party would make corruption perpetrated by the ruling BJD, especially in the mining sector, its main election plank. “We would certainly put up a better show than 2007,” he added.
BJP state president Jual Oram also said his party had nearly completed its ticket distribution exercise. “We had authorized our district unit chiefs to distribute the tickets. Ninety per cent of the tickets have been given; the rest will be given shortly,” he added.
Oram, a former Union minister, said his party had started getting good response from the public from different parts of the state. “We would definitely increase our tally in the zilla parishads,” he said.
In the 2007 zilla parishad polls, the BJD had won 345 seats of the 853 seats for which elections were held. Congress had finished second with 303 seats, while BJP had bagged 129 seats.
Senior BJD leader and Rajya Sabha member Pyarimohan Mohapatra had a couple of weeks back claimed his party would win between 450 and 600 zilla parishad seats this time.
IIM Sambalpur
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