BHUBANESWAR: The ruling BJD is heading for a landslide victory in the Zilla Parishad elections with the party leading in at least 270 ZP zones out of the 315 zones where counting is being done in the first phase on Saturday.
Opposition BJP and Congress have fallen way behind by leading from only 24 and 15 seats respectively while independents and others have established leads in only six zones. While the trends have come as a big letdown for the BJP, particularly in the Western Odisha districts, the BJD has established leads in a majority of districts. The BJD performance of BJD has considerably improved in Kalahandi, Balangir, Nuapada, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, and Mayurbhabj districts where the Opposition BJP had won a majority of seats in the 2017 Zilla Parishad elections.
According to trends available till now, BJP has not been able to lead in a single seat in 16 districts. The performance of Congress has also not improved though the party is putting up a fight in the traditional stronghold of Southern Odisha.
In the 2017 ZP elections, BJD had won 476 ZP zones while the BJP and Congress had won from 297 and 60 zones respectively. The BJD had won 651 ZP zones in the 2012 elections.