Reported by Chinmaya Dehury/Edited by Sandeep Sahu

Bhubaneswar, Aug 30:

With the State Election Commission (SEC) deciding yesterday not to hold elections to 25 urban local bodies (ULBs) in view of the ongoing strike led by lawyers in western Odisha, a total of 3, 942 candidates are left in the fray for elections to 66 ULBs polls to be held on September 19.

As per information made available by the Commission today, there would be no election in 36 seats since only one person has filed nomination for each of them.

The SEC had announced yesterday that elections in 25 ULBs in nine western Odisha districts would not be held for the time being as scrutiny of nomination of papers could not be carried out in these districts due to the ongoing agitation of lawyers demanding establishment of a permanent High Court bench in the region.

While nominations were filed partly in five ULBs, not a single nomination was filed in the other 20 ULBs spread over nine districts: Sambalpur, Balangir, Sonepur, Bargarh, Deogarh, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sundergarh and Jharsuguda districts.

The SEC will take a call on holding elections in these districts after examining the law and order situation there and getting reports from the respective district collectors.