Poll hopefuls wage the poster war in various wards in the city with the elections likely to be notified around the last week of December. Pictures by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Nov. 18: “Your kind attention please”, screams the posters of candidates standing for municipal elections likely to be held in February next year.

With the polls round the corner, the hopefuls of the councillor posts have already started a virtual war with their hands folded and welcoming people for the various festive occasions.

Some enthusiastic political hopefuls for the councillors’ posts are even using rear of the auto-rickshaws to paste their posters to garner support of the voters for the ensuing polls. Interestingly, the poster war between the civic poll hopefuls became more intense just after the whirlwind tours of the chief minister Naveen Patnaik across the city for two days last week. During his two-day tour he inaugurated and laid the foundation stones for projects worth nearly Rs 60 crore.

“We were seeing posters of some new faces in the poll fray since Durga Puja. Big posters have been put up to make people familiar with the faces of candidates, but after the chief minister’s whirlwind tours last week, the sitting councillors have also joined the poster show and started their visual campaigns,’’ said Nrupa Kishore Patnaik, a senior citizen from Pokhariput.

While the councillors have started their poster show, mayor Ananta Narayan Jena has followed in his high command’s footsteps and went for a inauguration and foundation stone laying activity.

After the CM’s tour, Jena has inaugurated a pond in Jagamara, which was renovated by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation. He laid the foundation stone for a homoeopathic dispensary in Baramunda and also inaugurated a park at Unit-IV on Saturday. He is likely to lay the foundation stone of some other smaller projects in Nayapalli on November 22.

Hrudaya Ballabh Samantray, councillor of Pokhariput, who has erected a huge banner near the local filling station since Durga Puja, said: “In general, we have to put up such posters to be in people’s psyche. However, as this is the election season, we have to be more presentable as we have to counter our possible opponents.’’

In fact, some sitting councillors and some hopefuls are also adopting other means to attract people. While a local contractor organised a public feast with mutton curry in the menu a fortnight ago near Kargil Basti, a councillor in the Old Town organised a bash last week to woo voters.

Lala Ashok Ray, councillor of Kharavela Nagar, said: “I had distributed 100 posters in various corners of my ward as during the delimitation process my original ward was fragmented and the parts were merged with other wards.’’

Madan Majhi, councillor of Gadakana, is not spending a single pie on the poster business. “My ward was reserved for woman during delimitation process, so there is no point in spending money this year on my own photo with folded hands,’’ he said.

Interesting things also do come through the poster war. In Bhimatangi, the name of the present councillor is Chhabindra Jena, but his arch rival and a businessman from the same area, also another Chhabindra Jena, has come up with huge posters along the railway track to attract people’s gaze.

Contacted, the present councillor, said: “I am not in a hurry. First let the poll notification be issued. I know the voters and they know me, so there is no point in becoming restless and jump into the fray from these early days of the poll process. I am sure the voters will not get confused by my namesake.’’