The ruling BJD won 268 Zilla Parishad seats of the 300 declared so far with the counting for the panchayat polls continuing for the second day on Sunday, officials said. Opposition BJP and Congress won only 14 seats each, while Independent candidates won two seats. Other parties also won two seats, they said
The counting began on Saturday and will continue till Monday. Votes for 305 seats are being counted on Sunday, while votes for the rest 231 will be counted on Monday.
Total 851 Zilla Parishad seats went to the polls, while one seat was decided uncontested. The BJD has won or is leading at present in 329 of 379 seats, followed by BJP at 19 and Congress at 17. The BJD has trounced the main opposition BJP in its strongholds of Kalahandi, Bolangir, Sambalpur, Sundargarh, Mayurbhanj and Malkangiri.
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The BJP had won around 35 per cent of the seats in the 2017 panchayat election. The panchayat elections were held in five phases -- February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24, recording a voter turnout of 78.6 per cent.
With PTI Inputs
