Baripada ULB polls: Congress cuts into BJP vote bank

Baripada: Vote percentage of the BJP has nosedived in the recently concluded urban local body elections in Baripada Municipality as Congress has cut into the saffron vote base, leading BJD’s chairperson candidate Krushnananda Mohanty to a victory, political observed said.

According to reports, winners and losers of the BJP, BJD, Congress and other parties have started post-mortem of ULB results in the municipality.

BJD’s Krushnananda Mohanty has polled 22,297 votes while his nearest rival BJP’s Kabi Bishnu Satapathy has got 12,688 votes.

On the other hand, Congress candidate Jogesh Agrawal has got 12,061 votes – almost equal with BJP votes. In the recently concluded panchayat elections, Congress was placed at third position while the BJP ended at fourth position.

BJP’s vote percentage was 31. In the ULB elections of Baripada, altogether 53,908 voters spread over 28 ward had exercised their franchise.

The BJD logged 41.36 voting while the BJP recorded 23.53 percent and that of Congress was 22.36. Given this comparison, the vote percentage of the BJP has certainly come down.

Its voters have gone into the kitty of Congress, leading to the win of the BJD candidate. Locals observed that Congress played a crucial role in the victory of the BJD and debacle of the BJP.

It was learnt that 13 other candidates who had thrown their hats into the rings for the post of chairperson have lost their deposits as they have failed to poll one/eighths of the polling.

PNN