Jajpur Road: Elections to the Vyasanagar municipality in Jajpur and other civic bodies in the state will be held March 24.
After announcement of poll schedules, frontline leaders of various political parties who were in hibernation for the last three years have become active again.
Political activities by the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) have peaked up. The ruling party has started exercise to pick up right candidates for councilors, as voters are said to be looking forward to new faces.
With only four days left for nomination filing, some BJD leaders held a closed-door meeting in a hotel here, Saturday. Political grapevines are agog about the party leadership looking for new faces to be fielded this time.
This is because people of Vyasanagar municipality had seen several no confidence motions between 2013 and 2018, pointing to lingering instability in the civic administration.
Interestingly, the post of chairperson in the municipality has been reserved for women belonging to the scheduled tribes where tribal population is allegedly negligible.
In view of this, all three political parties- BJD, BJP and Congress have been brainstorming on fielding the right candidate from tribal community. In the last three years, denizens have suffered as garbage disposal and sanitation have been in mess.
Leaders perceive that the discontent among locals may find an outlet in the elections. Leaders of opposition parties are out to weaponise such issues against the ruling party in the 27- year-old civic body.
Many people say that instead of addressing the poor drainage, messy sanitation and bad roads, the administration has laid stress on beautification of the civic body.
People of Digisahi, Umapada and Housing board colony are perennially affected by poor drainage and pollution.
Some streets in the colony are always waterlogged. In 2013, the BJD had formed council in the 26 wards of the civic body. All the councilors were backed by Korei MLA Pritiranjan Ghadei.
Sabita Rout was elected as chairperson of the civic body. However, in the last two years of her term, she had to face no confidence motion thrice. As a result, the pace of development was badly affected due to political turmoil.
This political instability was allegedly orchestrated by the BJD and Congress to fulfill their interests and show their political clouts. People have not yet forgotten such mess.
Keeping these factors in view, the educated and conscious denizens of the city are in a mood to see new faces in the field, it is said.
PNN