BHUBANESWAR: The Naveen Patnaik-led BJD has smashed all records in the history of the three-tier panchayat elections in Odisha and headed towards a clean sweep of seats, reducing the main challenger BJP to the fringes.The ruling party was set to form zilla parishads (ZP) in all the 30 districts of the State with its tally certain to cross an all-time high of 750 seats, as the trends by the end of the third and final day of counting indicated.
Of the total 853 ZP zones, elections were held in 851. Going by the win/lead position of different political parties in all the three days of the counting, the ruling BJD was way ahead of the Opposition with 763 zones. While the BJP was a faraway second with only 44 zones, Congress was close behind with 37 zones.
The BJD has made a huge jump in the total number of seats won by the party in this election compared to 2017 while the BJP number has come down drastically. The BJD had won 476 seats in 2017 elections and the BJP had bagged 297 posing a serious challenge to the ruling party. Congress had won from 60 zones while others and Independents had got 20.
In 2017, the BJD held 20 districts while BJP and Congress were ahead in eight and two districts respectively. However, this time the BJD has made a spectacular turnaround, rebuffing all the talk of anti-incumbency, to snatch all the 10 Opposition-held districts of Balangir, Bargarh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Rayagada and Jharsuguda.
Results of the 620 ZP zones have already been declared by the State Election Commission. While the BJD candidates have won from 552 zones, BJP and Congress have won from 31 and 30 zones respectively. Counting on the third day was taken up in 231 ZP zones out of which BJD candidates are leading 211 zones while BJP and Congress nominees are ahead in only 13 and seven zones respectively.