Campaign for panchayat polls to begin tomorrow

Bhubaneswar, Jan 25: Campaign for the three-tier Panchayat election across the state is beginning tomorrow. After, the State Election Commission (SEC) issued symbols and allotted party emblems to the candidates on Tuesday, the candidates are going to land on the field for formal campaign from the Wednesday. According to the notifications of the SEC, as many as 6794 sarpanchs, 6793 samiti members,91, 913 ward members and 853 zilla parishad member candidates will go to the voters to woo their support. However, the finalists contesting for the chairs of ward members, sarpanchs and the samiti members will non-politically approach the voters to elect them. At the same time, the zilla parishad members will seek support of voters on the basis of the efficiency and rapport of the parties with the common voters. Accordingly, the major political parties, ruling BJD, BJP and the Congress are going to kick-start their campaigns in the rural suburbs, with missions to acquire the gram panchaytas, Panchayat Samiti and the Zilla Parishad chairs. Sources said, the three contesting parties are ready to begin their rural journeys from tomorrow morning, with a number of strategic tools both in physical and digital formats, in order to influence the voters. The BJP and the BJD have prepared LED pattern hoardings to showcase the slew of welfare works chalked out by the state government and the role-models of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. However, the Congress  is going to launch door-to-door campaign to win the heart of voters. On the other hand, the SEC has issued strict guidelines for the campaign in view of the surge of Covid-19.The SEC will account for every campaign minutely in order to ensure the code of conducts and Covid-19 protocols, said State Election Commissioner, Aditya Prashad Padhi.