Berhampur, Aug. 30: The Congress and the Biju Janata Dal are at loggerheads over withdrawal of nomination papers by BJD candidate Minati Behera from ward No. 21 of the municipal corporation here.

The ward has been reserved in the upcoming civic polls for women belonging to scheduled caste communities.

The elections are scheduled on September 19.

“The candidate withdrew at the last minute at the behest of the Congress,” said Subash Maharana and Ramesh Chandra Chau Patnaik, who are steering the civic elections campaign here.

Maharana is the president of the Ganjam district unit of the BJD, while Patnaik is a local MLA.

“Minati would have won easily. That is why the Congress has managed to persuade her to withdraw papers. We have informed the party high command and have urged the leadership to take disciplinary action against her,” said Patnaik.

However, secretary of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee Bikram Panda, who is managing the election strategy of the Congress here, denied the allegations.

“It is a baseless and false allegation,” Bikram said.

Bikram also said the BJD had created such a situation during the last elections that the Congress was not able to field its candidates in four wards.

“The BJD cannot manage its own candidates. And, it is blaming us,” he said.

Two candidates are now left in the fray in the ward. They are Gita Madhoi of the Congress and Susanti Kanhai of the BJP.

After 14 candidates withdrew their nomination papers on the last day of withdrawal, there are 143 candidates in the fray for the 40 seats in the Berhampur Municipal Corporation polls.

The Congress has fielded 39 candidates, including 20 women. In ward No. 25, the Congress is supporting an Independent candidate.

The BJD, however, has to be content with 39 candidates, including 22 women, for 40 seats. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), which is contesting on its own, has fielded one woman candidate, while there are 29 Independents, including 13 women.

Govt to appoint administrators

The state government will appoint administrators in all the 25 urban local bodies in the nine districts of western Odisha where the elections have been deferred due to the ongoing lawyers' agitation.

The tenure of the all these civic bodies will end on September 30.

Sources said the Odisha Municipal Act stipulates the government to appoint administrators to run these civic bodies once their tenure lapses.

The lawyers, who are on a warpath, has already made it clear that their agitation would continue until their demand for a separate bench of the high court was not met.

Reacting to the development, Congress leader Narasingh Mishra blasted the BJD. He said: “The administration has totally collapsed. A constitutional crisis has emerged.”

BJP leader Biswa Bhusan Harichandan said: “Odisha has never witnessed such a crisis.”

BJD leader Damodar Rout, however, accused the Opposition of “exaggerating” the problem.