Bhubaneswar: As many as 36,779 candidates have been elected unopposed due to filing of single nominations in the upcoming panchayat polls in the state, State Election Commission (SEC) secretary Rabindra Nath Sahu said here Saturday.
“As no other candidate filed nomination papers against 36,779 candidates, they won the election,” Sahu said.
While 36,222 candidates have won uncontested for ward member posts, the figure for sarpanch posts stands at 209, he said.
Similarly, 347 candidates won without contest for samiti member posts and one candidate in Ganjam district emerged victorious for a zilla parishad (ZP) member post without contesting in the poll, he added.
The SEC office had notified a final list of 1,89,099 candidates who were in the poll fray after the withdrawal of nomination papers by candidates January 21.
Meanwhile, the three major parties in the state – the ruling Biju Janata Dal, and Opposition Congress and BJP – have intensified their campaigns for the five-phase panchayat polls starting February 13.
Orissa Congress president Prasad Harichandan has started his campaign from Bhubaneswar, while Union tribal welfare minister Jual Oram is campaigning in Sundargarh district for the BJP candidates.
Senior Congress leader and former state unit chief of the party Niranjan Patnaik has been busy campaigning in his native Keonjhar district.
The MLAs of all the parties too have started campaigning.
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan will soon start campaigning for their respective parties, said party sources.
As many as 3566 candidates in Ganjam have been elected unopposed while in Jharsuguda 360 which is the lowest number of winners sans opposition.
Now, 1,52,320 candidates are in fray for the election, of which 3287 are fighting for ZP seats, 21762 for PS member, 26,330 for sarpanch posts and 1,00,941 for ward member posts.
According to sources, as many 10,428 candidates including 44 sarpanch candidates and 44 panchayat samiti member candidate were elected unopposed in the last panchayat polls.
Similarly, 32,172 candidates who fought for ward member posts in 2007 were elected without contest, the sources said, adding 101 sarpanch candidates, 243 panchayat samiti member aspirants had won without elections that year. PNN
