Anandpur civic body chairperson unseated in no trust vote

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Anandpur, Jan 13:

The chairperson of Anandpur Municipality in Odisha’s Keonjhar district has lost the no trust vote result of which was declared today after keeping in abeyance for over five months.

anandpur municipality no trust vote

On June 28 last year, nine Councillors of Anandpur Municipality had brought a no-confidence motion against the chairperson Saraswati Jena.

The Councillors – five from BJD, two from Congress and two Independents – had approached District Collector N Thirumala Nayak for a no-confidence motion for which voting was conducted on July 23.

Following this, the chairperson had approached the High Court. The single bench court had restrained from declaring the result. Hearing the case on January 3, the court had vacated the stay on declaring the result. However, the contestant moved a division bench challenging the decision.

On January 11, a division bench comprising of Chief Justice Vineet Saran and Justice BR Sarangi rejected the appeal of Saraswati and ruled in favour of publication of the result.

Abiding by the court order, Anandpur Sub Collector Dr Maheswar Swain had fixed today for counting of the votes. Amid tight security arrangements, the votes were counted where 12 Councillors had voted in favour of the no-confidence motion, thus dethroning the chairperson.

According to reports, vice chairman Suresh Sahu would be the acting chairman till the outgoing is replaced. It is almost certain that Councillor Santanu Sethi would be selected as the next chairman of the civic body, sources added.

Today’s result has put an end to the conspiracy hatched by Minister Badri Narayan Patra to make the civic body defunct, vice chairman Suresh Sahu alleged.

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