By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, February 17, 2017: The third phase of Panchayat Polls in Odisha did not spring any surprise with the Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] continuing its dream run much ahead of the Congress followed by the ruling Biju Janata Dal [BJD].

BJP won 62 Zilla Parishad (ZP) zones while BJD got 87 out of 169 from the 175 Zilla Parishad zones which went for polls in the third phase of the 3-tier panchayat elections on Friday. Congress’ dismal performance continued as it was able to win only 15 seats.

BJP’s strong performance here continued in the 3rd phase with the saffron party all set to form zilla parishads in four districts, Balangir, Baragarh, Kalahandi and Mayurbhanj on its own.

The BJD continues to lead the race, but the gap with the BJP is closing in. The ruling BJD will be forming the ZP in Boudh district after claiming 1 zone in the 3rd phase taking its tally to six out of total nine zones of the district.
BJD’s dominance continues in Jagatsinghpur district as the party has claimed 5 out of the 8 zones which went for polls in the 3 phase. While BJP won in 2 zones, Congress claimed 1 zone. The BJD has now won 13 zones in the first three phases out of 26 zones in the district.

Similarly in Kendrapara, BJD made a clean sweep by claiming all the 7 zones which went for polling. In Khurda, out of 7 zones, 6 went to BJD and 1 to BJP.