Bhubaneswar: The Governing Biju Janata Dal (BJD) led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik once again proved that it is the single popular party in Odisha and there is no opponent of its level.
This was proved from the three-tier Panchayat Election results, which was announced today. The Governing party has won 766 of 851 Zilla Parishad seats, for which election was held in five different phases.
Out of the total 853 Zilla Parishad zones in the State, elections were held in 851 seats while the BJD candidate won one ZP seat uncontested and poll for another seat was countermanded. So in total, the BJD has able to grab 766 seats.
While the BJD has won an overwhelming majority of 766 seats, its principal rival BJP could manage to secure only 42 seats, followed by Congress with 37 seats. Independent candidates won three seats while others got four seats, the State Election Commission (SEC) said on Tuesday.
The BJD has gained 290 more seats as compared to its performance in the previous Panchayat polls of 2017. The Governing party had won 476 ZP seats in the last poll.
The BJP lost 255 ZP seats in 2022. While the saffron party had secured 297 ZP seats in 2017 elections, its tally has now come down to 42.
The Congress, which had bagged 60 ZP seats in 2017, has now won only 37 seats. The seats won by Independents and others, which were 16 in the previous election, have dipped to only seven in this election.
Out of 2,10,28,408 valid votes polled in this rural poll, the BJD has got 1,10,89,712 votes while BJP got only 63,23,746 votes, Congress got 28,54,398 votes. While the other party candidates got 4,79,334 votes, independent candidates got 2,81,213 votes.
The ruling party, with its landslide victory, is now all set to form the Council in all the 30 districts of the State. The BJP had last time formed the Parishad in eight districts.
While BJP, the State’s main opposition party, failed to win any of the ZP seats in 10 districts, the Congress could not open its account in 18 districts.
The districts where BJP could not win any of the ZP seats were Bhadrak, Deogarh, Jagatsinghpur, Jajpur, Jharsuguuda, Koraput, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabbarangpur and Rayagada.
Similarly, Congress candidates could not open their accounts in the districts of Angul, Bargarh, Bhadrak, Boudh, Cuttack, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Ganjam, Jajpur, Jharsuguda, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh, Puri, Sambalpur and Sundargarh.
The three-tier Panchayat elections were held in five phases on February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24, while counting was done on February 26, 27 and 28.