BHUBANESWAR: The ruling BJD is all set to surpass its 2012 tally of 651 zilla parishad (ZP) zones in the 2017 panchayat elections going by the trends available at the end of the second-day counting of votes on Sunday. Trends show that the ruling party’s score is likely to cross 700 ZP zones as counting finishes on Monday.
Continuing its victory march, the BJD was ahead in at least 273 ZP zones out of the total 305, counting of which was taken up on the day. The BJP and Congress were way behind by leading in only 15 zones each while Independents and other candidates were ahead in only three zones.
The State Election Commission (SEC) announced results of 395 ZP zones in two phases of counting on Saturday and Sunday. While BJD won 353 seats, BJP and Congress candidates won in 17 and 21 zones respectively. Independents and others won four zones. Result of one zone in Niali in Cuttack district is yet to be announced.
The ruling BJD was leading in 554 zones compared to 30 and 29 zones by BJP and Congress respectively while the tally of Independents and others had increased to seven.
Though Congress put up some fight in a couple of southern Odisha districts, the BJD was well ahead in all the 30 districts. Sources said that the BJD is likely to form parishads in all the 30 districts this time as there is almost no resistance from the Opposition parties anywhere. In all the major districts including Balasore, Cuttack, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Kendrapara and Mayurbhanj, the BJD’s tally is far more than the BJP and Congress rivals.
While in Mayurbhanj, the BJD is ahead in 24 out of the 26 zones where counting has been taken up in the second phase, the party is ahead in all the 15 ZP zones in Cuttack district. Similarly, the party is ahead in all the 22 zones in Ganjam district. In Keonjhar, the home district of president of the Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Niranjan Patnaik, BJD candidates are leading in all the 12 ZP zones in which counting is going on.
Counting of votes in 315 and 305 ZP zones were taken up on Saturday and Sunday respectively while the rest of the zones will be taken up on Monday.