Balasore: Candidates fielded in the domains of heavyweight leaders of various political parties have been trounced in the recently concluded panchayat polls in Balasore district, as per reports.
Their debacle is being blamed on blunder in strategies. It is construed that contesting candidates close to the power corridors have been left disappointed due to their defeat in the panchayat polls.
The candidates of the ruling BJD contested the polls from the zones-40 and 3 under Simulia Assembly segment under the direct supervision of state tourism and culture minister Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi.
However, the candidates fielded by the BJP won from these two zones. BJP candidate Ramesh Chandra Sahu from zilla parishad zone no-40 in Simulia defeated his BJD rival Khitish Kumar Mohanty with 518 votes.
Sahu received 16,307 votes. BJP candidate Gajendra Prasad Das from zilla parishad zone no-3 under Khaira block defeated his BJD rival Jayant Kumar Rout by 470 votes. BJP’s Das received 15,314 votes in the elections.
Similarly, the BJP candidate, who fought the election from the zone no-11 under Nilagiri Assembly segment under the direct supervision of party’s Nilagiri MLA Sukant Kumar Nayak and MP and former Union Minister Pratap Chandra Sarangi but the candidate was defeated in the polls.
BJD candidate Subarna Manjari Singh defeated her BJP rival Arjun Marndi by a margin of 3,336 votes in zilla parishad zone11 under Nilagiri Assembly segment.
Singh received 12,368 votes. The election to zilla parishad zone no-25 under Sadar block of Balasore Assembly segment was fought under the direct supervision of BJD MLA Swaroop Kumar Das but the party candidate was defeated in the polls.
BJP candidate Gayadhar Behera from zilla parishad zone25 under Sadar block defeated his BJD rival Sanjay Kumar Das by a margin of 312 votes. BJP’s Behera received 14,205 votes in the election.
PNN