Bhubaneswar, Nov. 5: Not a single nomination paper was filed in two civic bodies of Balangir on the last day of paper submission for polls in nine western Odisha districts on November 22.

Lawyers and local people are demanding a separate bench of Orissa High Court in Balangir and have boycotted the polls. People of Titilagarh, too, have stayed away from the polls in favour of their demand for a separate district.

In the remaining 20 civic bodies in western Odisha, the state election commission received 1,265 nomination papers. The state government seems to have succeeded in its efforts to ensure that all the three major political contenders — the BJD, Congress and the BJP — are taking part in the poll process. The Congress and the BJP had earlier urged the commission to cancel or postpone the polls citing unfavourable condition.

The western Odisha lawyers, who are demanding a permanent high court bench in the region, had given a “no court, no vote” call.

“We had appealed to all political parties and the people to boycott urban polls in support of our demand for a permanent high court bench in our town. We are happy that the people have supported our move,” said secretary of the Balangir Bar Association Saroj Gupta.

Convener of the Titilagarh District Action Committee Kishore Chandra Panda expressed happiness that there had been no nomination for the Titilagarh notified area council in support of the separate district demand.

The Election Commission had extended the last date of nomination from November 1 to November 5 because of “poor response”. Only 426 nomination papers were received by November 1.

The state government had deferred the polls in view of the lawyers’ protest.