Cross voting changes equations

BALASORE: Cross voting in the election of block chairpersons has left the BJD worried as it could manage to capture only five blocks out of 12 in Balasore district despite a clear majority in most of the blocks. The party has formed the panchayat samiti (PS) in Sadar, Remuna, Bhogarai, Basta and Baliapal. The poor show of the ruling party in Simulia and Khaira blocks which falls in Simulia Assembly constituency represented by former BJD district president Parshuram Panigrahi has surprised many. Of the 17 elected PS members in Simulia block, 10 had won with BJD support and the party was expecting a clear win in the PS chairperson election. A Congress-supported candidate Suryakanta Mohapatra won it due to cross voting by three BJD-supported members. Similar was the case with Khaira block. Of the 30 PS members, 16 had won the polls with BJD support here. Two winning BJD rebels also had declared support to the ruling party-backed PS chairperson candidate. But things changed overnight after BJD declared its nominee Jyotsnarani Das instead of Jayanti Mahala. An aggrieved Jayanti in turn joined the Congress camp and defeated Jyotsnarani. She bagged 17 votes while the BJD candidate got only 13. Cross voting by the BJD-supported members in Bhogarai block also baffled the ruling party MLA and BJD district president Ananta Das. While of the 32 PS members, 25 won the election with BJD support, seven had the  Congress blessings. Though the BJD- supported candidate Ganapati Giri won block chairperson post, Congress nominee got 13 votes even though one of its members was absent. It indicated that seven from the BJD camp had voted in his favour.While Tapan Das of Congress won the election with a margin of five votes in the 27-member Jaleswar PS due to cross voting of two BJD-supported candidates, in Bahanaga block one BJD candidate supported Sarat Raj of Congress to win the poll. The BJD supported candidates - Sabitarani Sahu and Aswini Kumar Jena - won the election uncontested from Basta and Baliapal blocks respectively as Congress did not field any candidate. Similarly, Susmita Mohapatra and Gouramani Behera of BJD have won from Sadar and Remuna blocks. The BJP, however, managed to form the samiti in Oupada block as its candidate Rebati Majhi defeated the BJD and Congress supported nominees.