Bhuvaneswar: In Odisha, the five-phase three-tier Panchayat polls ended on Tuesday where the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) continued to be Number 1 and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued its unexpected surge till the end of the last rounds.

 

The BJD which had swept the 2012 panchayat polls, winning 651 of the 851 ZP seats, has won 450 seats this time. BJP won nearly 306, almost 10 times its tally of 36 in 2012. Congress, which won 128 seats in 2012, has managed just 60 odd seats. Quoting sources, our correspondent reports that BJP has won the majority of Zila Parishad seats in the BJD stronghold of Sambalpur, Bargarh, Bolangir and Deogar districts and tribal-dominated districts of Malkangiri and Mayurbhanj.

 

The BJP secured majority in at least eight Zilla Parishads at the end of the fifth and final phase of polling while the ruling Biju Janata Dal won 16 Zilla Parishads out of the 30. The final results will be officially declared by the State Election Commission tomorrow.