12 councillors vote on no trust vote against Anandpur civic body chief

Anandpur: As many as 12 councillors took part in the voting held today on the no-confidence motion against the chairperson of the Anandpur Municipality.

Four members of the civic body, including chairperson Saraswati Jena, abstained during the voting. The votes, however, were not counted due to a High Court injunction.

"The ballot box has been kept sealed in the treasury office. It would not be opened till further order is passed by the court," returning officer Maheswar Swain said.

On June 28, nine councillors of the civic body had moved the motion against the chairperson after meeting collector N Thirumala Nayak at his office.

Of the nine councillors, five belong to BJD, two are from Congress and two Independents.

Saraswati had said then that she was unaware of the reason for the move. “I don’t know the reason. I was with them and with their support I was elected as the chairperson. Besides, I did whatever the councillors wanted. Despite this, I don’t know what went wrong that they met the collector and proposed a no trust motion against me,” she had said at the time.

Later, she had filed a petition in Orissa High Court acting on which the court had ordered the district administration not to declare the result till further orders.