Ensure landslide victory in cooperative bodies’ poll: Odisha CM to BJD leaders

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president Naveen Patnaik on Monday asked his party leaders to fight the upcoming election for cooperative bodies with all seriousness to ensure a landslide victory.

In the first phase, the elections to more than 6,000 primary societies will be held on June 19 and June 26 and after this process is over, the election to central and apex societies will be held.

While interacting with party functionaries about the cooperative election, Patnaik said that the BJD did very well in the last urban local body (ULB) and panchayat elections. All the party leaders and workers put in their best efforts to ensure a landslide victory in both, he added.

“The results have been most satisfactory for us, and we have been able to form zilla parishads in all 30 districts. Our party candidates have won as mayors & corporators, chairpersons, vice-chairpersons, and councillors in almost all ULBs and the candidates supported by us have won as chairperson and vice-chairperson in most of the blocks,” he pointed out.

Stating that this has now become the BJD’s new benchmark of political strength in the entire state, the BJD president urged his party leaders to utilise this strength strategically everywhere, so that they can fare much better than the last time in cooperative elections.

“This election is very important to us and has to be fought with all seriousness,” he told the party functionaries.

The ruling party in Odisha has formed district level committees in each district to monitor the elections at the primary level.

For better supervision and monitoring, four zonal committees for central, north, south, and west zones have also been constituted to coordinate with district committees and observers of districts of respective zones, party sources informed.

Similarly, for overall monitoring and supervision of the entire election process a state level committee has been constituted that will coordinate with the districts for the smooth conduct of the elections.

Patnaik has asked the state committee to review the zonal and district committees once a week till the elections take place and submit their weekly observations regarding preparedness, progress and prospects.

–IANS