Odisha phase 1 rural poll result trends put BJD in decisive lead

Counting for another 307 seats will be held on February 27 and for the remaining 229 on February 28.

Written by Aishwarya Mohanty

Bhubaneswar | Updated: February 27, 2022 06:35 AM IST

2 min read

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The counting of votes for 315 seats began in different block headquarters at 8am under strict Covid-19 guidelines, State Election Commission (SEC) officials said.

THE RULING Biju Janata Dal (BJD) registered a decisive lead in the trends for 280 of 315 Zila Parishad Zone (ZPZ) seats on Saturday, while BJP and Congress remained in a close fight for the second spot when this report was filed around 10pm. The counting of votes for 315 seats began in different block headquarters at 8am under strict Covid-19 guidelines, State Election Commission (SEC) officials said. Counting for another 307 seats will be held on February 27 and for the remaining 229 on February 28.

The 2017 panchayat elections had marked the entry of the BJP, making inroads particularly in Balangir, Bargarh, Deogarh, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Nuapada, Sambalpur and Subarnapur district in the western part. The trends this time, however, show the BJP ceding ground to the BJD in the region.

Explained

Litmus test for parties

While these rural elections are a litmus test for the political parties ahead of the 2024 general and assembly elections, the previous rural elections held in 2017 had announced the emergence of BJP as a major political party trailing behind the BJD and deflecting the Congress to the third position. For all the three parties, the outcome of the rural elections may have a direct bearing on their performance in the next general elections.

In 2017, the BJP had won 58 of the 111 zones, the BJD 37 and the Congress 16. Two years later in 2019, the BJP won from all the four Lok Sabha seats in western Odisha. But it was the BJD that dominated in the Assembly election the same year, winning 17 of the 24 seats in the region.

As many as 36,523 ward members, 126 sarpanches, 326 panchayat samiti members, and one Zilla Parishad member were declared winners unopposed. A total of 2.2 lakh candidates had contested in this rural elections.

The polling was held in five phases. The overall voter turnout was 78.6 per cent, slightly better than the 78.03 per cent in 2017.

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