BJD ‘has’ 26 seats, to form ZP in Balangir

BJD ‘has’ 26 seats, to form ZP in Balangir MONDAY, 20 FEBRUARY 2012 23:20 PNS | BALANGIR HITS: 12 User Rating: / 0 PoorBest According to reports from the booth level, out of the six Balangir Zilla Parishad seats, for which elections were held in the last phase of Sunday, the BJD bagged five and Congress only one seat. Out of the total 34 ZP seats, the BJD’s total tally of ZP seats went up to 26 while the BJP got five and the Congress got three seats. Notwithstanding the resignation of the district’s BJD leader AU Singh Deo as the Excise Minister in the wake of the Cuttack hooch tragedy in the midst of the elections, the ruling party registered a convincing victory. Along with AU Singh Deo, his sons Kalikesh Narayan Singh Deo (MP), Arkesh Narayan Singh Deo and Manmath Vijaya Singh Deo campaigned to ensure victory for the party. The disappointing performance of the Congress was considered due to its virtual defunct organisation and absence of a strong leadership. By and large, the election was peaceful barring three violent incidents. A ward member contestant of Thapapali was killed. A BJD ZP candidate, Bhaktaram Majhi, was brutally attacked by miscreants in Titilagarh Subdivision while returning. In another incident, two polling officials were attacked by unknown miscreants in the Sadar police station area. ======================================================================================