BJD saves Vyasanagar as councillors stay away

Bhubaneswar: In a sigh of relief for the BJD, the trust vote against Vyasanagar municipality chairperson Sabita Rout was rejected on Wednesday in the absence of required number of councillors.
The BJD managed to save the municipality as none of its 16 councillors appeared for the vote after the party issued a whip asking them to abstain from voting.BJD chief Naveen Patnaik also intervened in the matter on Tuesday and asked all party councillors to stay united.
Consent of two-third majority of the 26-member civic body was required to conduct voting, according to norms. "Since only nine Congress councillors had turned up by the stipulated time, the no-confidence motion against the chairperson was rejected," said Abdul Alim Khan, additional district magistrate of Kalinganagar.
After winning 16 out of the total 26 wards of Vyasanagar municipality, the BJD had formed the council in September 2013. Party candidate Sabita Rout was elected as its chairperson.
On August 17, nine Congress councillors moved a no-trust motion against the chairperson after apparently getting support from some of the disgruntled BJD councillors who were not happy with Rout's leadership.
A day before the trust vote (on Tuesday), senior BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishra, addressing a news conference here, claimed that all BJD councillors were united and they would not participate in the trust vote. Mishra also claimed that the differences among the councillors had been sorted out.
According to reports, the BJD councillors who had pledged their support to the chairperson following the party chief's intervention were kept in a local hotel since Tuesday. Local BJD MLA Akash Dasnayak was also camping in the town to monitor the situation.
"Since some of the BJD councillors had assured us of cooperation during the trust vote, we moved the no-confidence motion against the chairperson. They could not turn up due to pressure mounted on them by the BJD leadership. We would continue our fight against the misrule of the chairperson," said Bandita Parida, a Congress councillor.
It must be noted that due to infighting among councillors, the BJD had earlier lost the trust vote in Keonjhar and Dhenkanal municipalities.