Dhenkanal, Oct. 13: The BJP today captured Dhenkanal Municipality in the by-election held for the chairperson post today. Congress, which has 11 councillors in the civic body, marginally lost the by-poll.

On August 1, BJD chairperson Indramani Behera had been defeated in a no-trust motion. Behera was elected the chairperson in 2013 with support of BJP. But subsequently, BJP withdrew its support for Behera, resulting in the no-trust vote.

In the 23-member municipal council of Dhenkanal civic body, there are 11 Congress councillors, six from BJP and one Independent apart from five BJD councillors.

Today, though BJD abstained from voting, while the other 18 councillors took part in the poll.

There was a tie as BJP's Sudhasnshu Dalei and Congress councillor Rudranta Dalei, who contested as Independent, pulled nine votes each. Sudhanshu was declared elected in the lottery. The results were declared by sub-collector Abanikanta Patnaik who conducted the poll.

Rudranta had also contested against BJP-BJD alliance in 2013 and pulled the same number of votes, resulting in a tie. He had lost in the lottery then and BJP-backed BJD candidate Indramani was declared elected. This time, Rudranta had filed his nomination as Independent despite being a Congress councillor.

Though the BJP did not have majority support, its nominee Sudhanshu managed to win today's by-poll apparently by roping in the support of two Congress councillors and the lone Independent councillor.

Fraud charge

An event management company has been accused of duping over a dozen investors of Rs 3 crore on Thursday. The duped investors have lodged a complaint against the organization, Creative Express, at the economic offences wing of the state crime branch.