Bhubaneswar: The latest trends on the Day-1 of counting of votes for 315 zilla parishad (ZP) seats shows that the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was sweeping the panchayat polls.
The counting of votes for 315 ZP seats started at 8am Saturday under strict adherence to Covid-19 guidelines and it has not been completed till the last report came in.
The party-led by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was leading in 281 out of 315 ZP seats while BJP candidates are ahead only in 13 seats and Congress in 16.
Independent and other candidates were leading in the remaining five seats, as per the trends. If district-wise trend is taken into consideration, the BJD is leading in all 30 districts.
The ruling party was leading in 23 out of 26 seats in Mayurbhanj. It was also leading in all the seats in Ganjam, Angul, Bhadrak, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Nuapada, Nayagarh and Puri district.
The BJP was leading in four seats in Kalahandi, and in two seats each in Bolangir, Bargarh and Khurda district.
The Congress party was leading in six seats in Rayagada, five seats in Koraput, two seats each in Gajapati and Kandhamal and one seat in Cuttack, Malkangiri and Sonepur.
The counting for the remaining 307 ZP zones will be conducted February 27 and 229 ZP zones February 28, they said.
The polling for the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) was held in five phases – February 16, 18, 20, 22, and 24. The overall voter turnout was 78.6 per cent this time, slightly better than 78.03 per cent in 2017. A total of 2.2 lakh candidates contested the elections.
The State Election Commission (SEC) had declared 36,523 ward members, 126 sarpanchs, 326 samiti members, and one ZP member as uncontested winners.
PNN
