Congress claims 12 Zilla Parishad in Orissa

Bhubaneswar,Feb 25 (UNI) Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee(OPCC) President Jayadev Jena today claimed that his party has captured 12 of the 30 Zilla Parishad in the just concluded Panchayat elections in the state.

Talking to newsmen here, Mr Jena said despite large scale rigging, money and muscle power of the ruling Biju Janata Dal in the election, the Congress candidates had won 323 of the total 854 Zilla Parishad members post.

The Congress party, he said, would hold 12 Zilla Parishad with the support of the other secular parties while in Mayurbhanj it would join with the JMM which had captured 23 of the total 56 members post.

Mr Jena said during the last Panchayat elections in 2002,the Congress had bagged 283 seats and claimed that if the State Elections Commission(SEC) accepted their complaint of repolling, the party would get 50 more seats in addition to 323 seats it had captured during the elections.

The PCC Chief alleged that there has been large scale irregularities even during the counting and in many cases the Congress candidates were defeated with lesser margin of votes due to the undemocratic procedure adopted by the state government.

He cited several cases where the BJD activists in connivance with the police had captured and rigged the booths. The Congress, he warned, would launch a state wide agitation and move court if the SEC turned down their demand for repolling in the booths allegedly rigged by the ruling BJD activists.

Mr Jena also claimed that the Congress had won nearly 60 per cent of the sarpanches and Panchayat Samittee seats in the elections, but unfortunately the ruling BJD at the behest of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has indulged in horse trading to lure the elected sarpanch and panchayat samittee members.

The SEC, he said, had deliberately kept a long date for elections to the Chairman of Panchayat Samitees to help the ruling BJD indulge in horse trading.

UNI