The Hindu 14.02.2014
Anita elected Mayor of CMC
Naveen announces her name for the coveted post
BJD corporator Anita Behera of Upper Telengabazar of the
city on Thursday was elected unopposed as Mayor of the Cuttack
Municipal Corporation (CMC). The 37-year-old housewife, having two
daughters, was elected as a corporator from the Ward No. 21 in the
elections held last week.
A Plus II dropout, Anita is
a native of Athgarh area of the district and studied in various schools
of Dhenkanal district. Marrying Narendra Behera, a businessman in the
city, Anita has been staying here for over a decade now.
The
election of Anita became a mere formality after the BJD president and
Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced her name for the post this
morning. The ruling party won 36 seats in the 59-ward council.
Since
the post of Mayor in the city was reserved for the Scheduled Caste
woman and there are only four SC women in the council (all four of them
are from BJD), no other candidate opposed Anita’s candidature and she
was declared elected to the coveted post unopposed.
In
fact, Anita became the second woman Mayor of the city. Nibedita Pradhan
of BJP became the first Mayor and also the first woman Mayor of the
city in 2003 after the Saffron party had formed the council of the CMC
in alliance with the BJD.
Coincidentally, Anita won
from Ward No. 21 this time and her predecessor S.K Ghosh also won from
the Ward No. 21 during the 2009 elections but the areas under it were
different. More interestingly, Ghosh had won from the same area which
was earlier represented by his predecessor Nibedita Pradhan in 2003
elections.
In a three-cornered contest this time in
Ward No 21, Anita won by defeating her nearest rival Padmini Behera of
BJP by a margin of 574 votes. While Anita had polled 1,603 votes,
Padmini got 1,029 votes. Other contender of the ward Sabita Naik of
Congress managed to poll only 953 votes.
Felicitated
Earlier
in the day, all the 59 elected corporators were felicitated by CMC
Commissioner Gyana anjan Das who also administered the oath of office.
After assuming charge as Mayor, Behera told the waiting media persons
that she would work sincerely for development of the city. The election
for the post of Deputy Mayor is scheduled on March 1.
