By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, March 1, 2022: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) Tuesday decimated the opposition by registering a record massive victory in the three-tire panchayat elections by winning 766 of the 852 seats declared by the State Election Commission (SEC).

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which in the last 2017 panchyat polls had won 476 seats and could form zilla parishads in 20 districts, could secure only 42 Zilla Parishad seats this time, followed by Congress with 37 ZP seats. Independent candidates won in three seats while four other seats went to smaller parties.

Of the state’s total 853 Zilla Parisahad seats, the commission had held elections for 851 seats while one seat was won by BJD uncontested.

BJD secured around 52.73 per cent of 2,10,28,403 valid votes polled during five phases of polling held between February 15 and 24. While its rival BJP garnered a decent but not enough 30.07 per cent of votes and Congress 13.57 per cent. Independent candidates secured only 1.33 % of votes, while other parties got 2.79 per cent of votes.

The ruling BJD, which has secured 476 ZP seats in the previous 2017 rural polls, this time in 2022 gained 290 more seats. The massive victory makes it clear that BJD has been able to consolidate its iron grip on rural Odisha. The opposition would find it really tough to wrest power from it in future elections.

The Congress, which had bagged 60 ZP seats in 2017, has this time round won a mere 37 seats. The seats won by Independents and others, which were 17 in the previous election, have dipped to just seven in this election.

The ruling party, with its landslide victory, is now all set to form the ZP in all the 30 districts of the state. The BJP had last time formed the ZP in eight districts while Congress had formed ZP in two districts.

While BJP, the state’s main opposition party, failed to win any of the ZP seats in 10 districts, the Congress could not open its account in 18 districts.

The BJD has reversed its losses in 2017 and wrested all the 10 districts held by the opposition BJP and Congress. The party has this time established its hold over Balangir, Bargarh, Deogarh, Gajapati, Kalahandi, Mayurbhanj, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Rayagada and Jharsuguda.

In 2017 the BJP had won 476 seats and could form zilla parishads in 20 districts, while BJP formed had done so in eight districts and the Congress in two.

The BJP, which had formed ZPs in eight districts after winning 297 seats in 2017, faced a drubbing this time round in its bastions in western Odisha, Mayurbhanj and Malkangiri where it drew a blank.

It also fared badly in Angul, the home district of Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan who is considered the face of the saffron party in Odisha. The party won just one seat out of 28 ZP seats in Angul.

With BJD winning a landslide victory in the rural polls in the state, party president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said the massive mandate for the party has increased its commitment for “seva” (service) to the people.

Taking to twitter, Patnaik said, “I thank the people from the core of my heart for their liking for BJD and support to the BJD candidates. This massive mandate has reinforced our commitment towards service of the people. The dedicated service by the winning candidates and our party workers has made the BJD a movement.”

Senior BJP leader Bijoy Mohapatra blamed a lack of clear strategy and lack of preparations for the huge loss. “It’s obvious if a party is unprepared and going to election. There was no clear strategy, neither was there any meeting prior to the polls in BJP,” Mohapatra said.

OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik admitted the defeat and alleged that the state government utilized public money to influence voters through welfare schemes before the election.