Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) has made a landslide victory in 263 Zilla Parishad (ZP) zones among 295 seats, the State Election Commission (SEC) informed on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Congress and the BJP won in 14 ZP zones each. On the other hand, Independent candidates and nominees of other parties managed to win in two zones each.
Of the 305 ZP seats where counting was underway (till 2 p.m. on Sunday) the BJD was leading in 253 seats, BJP in 23, Congress in 16 and others in 4. The BJD had won 476 seats in 2017.
The counting of votes will continue for three days – February 26, 27 and 28. The SEC said that the centralised counting of votes is taking place for the polls.
Around 70 per cent of the 41.88 lakh electorate exercised their franchise in the fifth phase of the three-tier panchayat election in Odisha.