Bhubaneswar, Feb 26: Day one of counting of votes for 315 Zilla Parishad zones of the three-tier Panchayat elections in Odisha on Saturday saw BJD leading in 87% Zilla Parishad zones.
The ruling party of the state is now leading in 273 ZP zones, followed by BJP in 20, Congress in 15 and others in 7.
A big turnaround is being seen in Mayurbhanj and Kalahandi Zilla Parishads.
The BJP, which had won 49 ZP zones in Mayurbhanj in 2017, is down to 0 in this election while it is a gain of around 20 for the BJD. While BJP was hopeful of a better prospect in the district with Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu campaigning for the party candidates, Pranab Prakash Das, working in the district for the last three years, seems to have turned the tides in favour of BJD.
In Kalahandi, the BJP is down to 4 from 33. The BJD, which had won 1 ZP zone in 2017, is now leading in 10.
The distribution of BSKY smart health cards by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik also seems to be a game-changer in this year’s Panchayat polls.
A total of 2.2 lakh candidates were in the fry and the State Election Commission (SEC) had declared 36,523 ward members, 126 Sarpanchs, 326 Samiti members, and one Zilla Parishad member as elected uncontested.
Counting for 307 and 229 Zilla Parishad zones will be done on February 27 and 28 respectively.
If these trends hold for the next two days, the BJD will head for a landslide victory. Notably, the BJD won 651 ZP zones in 2012. In 2017, BJD had won 476 ZP zones and BJP 297.
On Friday, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) was confident of a landslide victory, while the BJP was hopeful of improving its 2017 performance. The Congress had expected to regain its second position with 200 seats.
If there is a difference between the ballot paper account and the actual ballot papers found in the ballot boxes, a marked copy of the electoral roll by polling officials and presiding officers’ diary will be referred to ascertain the correctness. If the number of ballot papers is more than the total number of voters in a particular ward, the counting of votes in respect of that ward shall be held up and the matter shall be referred to the commission for a decision, the State Election Commission had said on Friday.
The five-phase polls ended on February 24 with an overall voter turnout of 78.6 per cent, slightly better than the 78.03 per cent in 2017. The results over the next two days will set the tone for urban polls slated for March 24.
