The Odisha State Election Commission on Friday announced that elections for the urban local bodies, including Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur Municipal Corporations, will be held on March 24.
As many as 47 municipalities and 59 Notified Area Councils (NACs) will go to the polls on March 24. The announcement came 24 hours after polling for the five-phase panchayat elections ended on Thursday.
According to the SEC, the counting of votes for the urban polls will be done on March 26.
For the first time, mayors of corporations and chairpersons of urban bodies like municipalities and NAC will be directly elected by the voters. Earlier, they were elected by corporators and councilors.
Filing of nomination papers for different posts of urban bodies will take place between March 2 and March 7. More than 27 lakh voters will take part in the elections for urban bodies, which have been delayed by over three years.
The real contest in urban polls this time will be between the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and BJP. The saffron party, which is yet to expand its base in the rural areas, has a strong presence in urban areas.
“However, considering the BJD’s penetration into the slums of the cities through its various welfare programmes, the party still has an edge over the BJP,” said a political activist.
Sun Temple study
Union minister for steel Ram Chandra Prasad Singh on Friday said he would urge the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to make a study of the metallurgical quality of iron and steel used in the 13th century Sun Temple at Konark. Singh made the statement while visiting the Sun Temple on Friday.
