By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 26, 2022: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Saturday won around 274 seats out of the total 315 Zila Parishad Zone seats counting for which was held today. The BJP won 20 seats, Congress 14 and other seven. The saffron party was leading on around 30 seats but as the counting progressed, the BJD consolidated its position.

The counting of votes started at 8 am in different block headquarters. The counting for the remaining 307 Zilla Parishad zone seats will be done on February 27 and 229 Zilla Parishad zone seats on February 29. Voting was held for over 800 zilla parishad seats, 1,669 sarpanch posts, 1,669 samiti member seats and 22,379 ward member posts in 71 blocks of 30 districts, polling for which was held in five phases – February 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 and re-polling took place on February 23 and 25.

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.

In the fifth phase polling was held for 131 zilla parishad member posts in 975 panchayats under 48 blocks of 25 districts. As many as 13,514 booths were set up for the voters to cast their votes this time. While a total 2.2 lakh candidates contested the elections, the SEC declared 36,523 ward members, 126 sarpanch, 326 panchayat samiti members and one zilla parishad member as uncontested winners, the SEC said in a statement.

The Commission said that more than one lakh state government employees were engaged in election duty in the five phases and around 40,000 police personnel were deployed to maintain law and order for the poll. The SEC has announced ex gratia of Rs 15 lakh to families of each of the three police personnel killed in a road mishap in Nabarangpur district on February 19.