Odisha Panchayat Election

In another incident, some miscreants allegedly attacked BJD’s Zone-24 Zilla Parishad candidate Dharnidhar Sahu while he was campaigning at Potal village under Pipili block of Puri district on Monday.

A rather peaceful state of Odisha has suddenly witnessed eruption of violence in many parts, thanks to the cut throat competition among candidates for the forthcoming Panchayat elections.

Meanwhile, BJP leaders accused the police of bending rules for the ruling BJD party. “They (police) stopped us at different points from the beginning of the rally. No one can stop us from campaigning as it is our Constitutional right to reach people,” said State BJP President Sameer Mohanty.

The panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in five phases on February 16, 18, 20, 22 and February 24, 2022.

In the first phase of election on February 16, votes will be polled at 200 zilla parishad zones in 71 blocks. Voting will be carried out at 22379 wards and 1669 panchayats across the State. As many as 67.51 lakh voters will exercise their franchise.

The victim, identified as Puspita Jena, was attacked by three miscreants while she was returning home after campaigning on Sunday. She has been admitted to hospital in a critical condition.

Dhinkia witnessed violent clash between police and locals over a proposed project of the JSW in the area last month.

On the other hand, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has intensified campaigning in Ganjam's Polsara Block. Several Ollywood actors like Tamanna, Poonam and Debashis were seen campaigning with local MLA Srikant Sahoo in ZP zone 38, 39 and 40. 

Pramila Mallik, BJD MLA from Binjharpur (Jajpur) has been accused of violating the model code of conduct by allegedly threatening to stop providing benefits of various schemes to people if they do not vote for the ruling party in the Panchayat polls.

Despite CM Patnaik in fray from Bijepur, Bargarh voted for Modi-BJP in Lok Sabha 2019. But for BJP, Modi is not a factor in 2022 rural polls

The IT engineer Santosh Pradhan has filed his nomination as a Congress candidate from Zone No. 30 in the district.

As per the allegation by Congress workers, BJD supporters threw stones at Lipika’s vehicle while she along with the party supporters were campaigning at Chandrapur village. The vehicle has been partially damaged in the attack

The injured, from both sides, were initially admitted to Chandbali Community Health Centre and later shifted to Bhadrak District Headquarters hospital as their condition deteriorated

The senior leader from the neighbouring state is campaigning for Odisha Congress which has been pushed to the third position in the State politics

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The first phase poll for the forthcoming Panchayat elections, which is set to be held on February 16, will be conducted across 30 districts and 71 Blocks in Odisha

The students have expressed concern that they will be deprived of exercising their franchise in the upcoming elections if the exams and classes continue as per schedule.

All the aspirants agreed and took the test wherein they were required to answer seven questions. Interestingly, just three out of the eight candidates managed to pass the test.

Dejected by the treatment of authorities, Kartik Rao, a cobbler by profession decided to contest for the position of Sarpanch in the Panchayat elections so that people like him do not suffer any more under the guise of red-tapism.

The fear of tampering of ballot boxes has started gripping the Opposition parties in Odisha ahead of the voting for the Panchayat polls.

In 2017 polls, BJD had won 7 and BJP 1. But the votes polled by BJD candidates recorded a fall then

The SEC has decided to include the ‘None Of the Above’ (NOTA) option in the forthcoming civic body polls in the State in a bid to empower the voters to use their discretion while voting.

The situation turned ugly after they started manhandling and abusing each other which triggered the clash.

“On being asked by an ex-MLA, the current MLA’s reacted in an abusing manner. How will a common man have the courage to ask the legislator?" asked the former MLA of Soro.

DCPs, in case of the Blocks coming under the Commissionerate of Police, may also issue such permissions.