Oppn BeMC mayor aspirants reluctant

Berhampur: Aspirants of the opposition BJP and Congress for the mayor’s post of Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BeMC), who had started lobbying for party ticket, are now reluctant to contest following the drubbing in the panchayat polls. The BeMC election is scheduled to be held on March 24.
The ruling BJD made a clean sweep winning 43 out of 44 zilla parishad zones till Monday in Ganjam — the home district of chief minister Naveen Patnaik.Counting of another 25 ZP zones is going on. “The impact of the panchayat election result is likely to be felt in the civic body polls. That’s why I am not interested in contesting in the BeMC election,” said an aspirant of BJP on the condition of anonymity. Earlier she was interested in contesting for the mayor’s post as it is reserved for women. The woman BJP leader said she was now interested in contesting for the corporator’s post. A Congress aspirant echoed her. Excited over the landslide victory in the panchayat polls, Mamata Bisoi, BJD leader and former corporator, said the ruling party would repeat the same in the BeMC polls. Bisoi is one of the aspirants for the mayor post.