By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, April 8, 2015 :

The ruling Biju Janata Dal [BJD] in Odisha notched up another milestone by sweeping the polls s in the eight urban local bodies held on Tuesday.

While the BJD obtained a lion’s share with 103 seats (79.84 per cent), the opposition Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] cut a sorry figure with 11 (8.52 per cent) and 12 seats (9.30 per cent) respectively as per the poll results.

The BJD won absolute majority in Daspalla, Dharmagarh, Balimela, Tusra, and Redhakhol Notified Area Councils (NAC) and three municipalities in Paradip, Belpahar and Sunabeda.

Of the 16 seats in Daspalla, BJD won 13; the Independents got two while one went to BJP. The Congress could not open its account here. In Dharamgarh, the BJD got 13, while Congress got one.

In Tusra, BJD got eight seats followed by BJP (2) while Independent got one. In Rairakhol, BJD got BJD 12 seats while BJP got one.

In Balimela, BJD got seven, Congress two while the saffron party got three seats.
Paradip Municipality once again went to BJD which got 16 followed Congress two and BJP one.

In the BJP dominated Belpahar Municipality, the BJD got 16, Congress one and BJP two.

In the southern Sunabeda Municipality, the BJD got 18, Congress five and BJP two seats.

Post Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Rourkela, his party BJP was expected to fare well in the polls.

However, the results of the ULB polls which were announced on Wednesday showed that the party is way behind the ruling BJD and Congress. The Independents won three seats (2.32 per cent).

Political experts attributed the poor performance of the BJP to Mr Modi’s address to the BJD president and chief minister Naveen Patnaik as his Param Mitra or great friend in the Rourkela public rally which was attended by over one lakh BJP supporters.

The PM’s lavish praise was preceded by BJP national president Amit Shah remaining mysteriously mum in the party state unit’s Maha Sangram rally in Bhubaneswar in January. Organised mainly to highlight the major corruptions that took place during the regime of the Naveen Patnaik, the rally was also attended over a lakh people.

The experts said the BJP workers at the grassroots were highly demoralised due to the frequent soft stands taken by the party’s national leaders on the ruling BJD and its leader Naveen Patnaik.