Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD has swept the
elections to rural bodies establishing control over Zilla
Parishads in 26 of the 30 districts in the state, official
sources said on Friday.
In a landslide victory, the ruling regional party
headed by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has grabbed a lion's
share of 651 Zilla Parishad seats, according to data obtained
from the districts by the State Election Commission.
Both Congress and BJP were made to bite the dust as
they bagged 128 and 36 seats respectively out of the 851
zilla parishad zones for which elections were held in five
phases between February 11 and 19, SEC officials said.
Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) won eleven seats, CPI two
and CPI-M got one, while Independent candidates emerged
victorious in 22 zilla parishad seats, they said.
Though here are a total of 854 zilla parishad zones in
the state, elections were held in 851.
Elections could not be held for three seats in
Kashipur block of Rayagada district as all the candidates
withdrew their nominations over the demand for Scheduled Tribe
status to the local Jhodia community, SES officials said.
Election to zilla parishad president and
vice-president posts is scheduled to be held on March 13 and
March 24 respectively, they said.
PTI
First Published: Friday, February 24, 2012, 12:46