Odisha Panchayat elections: BJD sweeps rural polls with 766 seats, to form Zilla Parishad in all 30 districts

Biju Janata Dal registered a landslide victory in Odisha panchayat polls, with the party winning on 766 seats out of 852 seats.

Odisha's ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) registered a landslide victory in the three-tier panchayat polls. Out of 852 zilla parishads, the BJD won 766 seats, while BJP and Congress could grasp 42 and 37 seats respectively. Independents and other parties managed to win seven seats.

BJD Supremo and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik expressed his thanks to the people of the state as the ruling party won Zilla Parishads in all 30 districts in the state.

Recently, BJD general secretary Pranab Prakash Das had claimed that the party has become a "social movement". The result of the panchayat election seems to affirm Pranab Prakash’s claims, as per political analysts.

Meanwhile, rising prices and inflation seemingly hurt the BJP’s prospects in the rural polls, with the saffron party winning just 42 seats. This is a huge blow to the party that had won 297 seats in 2017.

Talking to India Today, BJD MP Amar Patnaik said that this is a reflection of love, affection and trust that people of Odisha have for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and the party led by him. "That is the reason, after 22 years the support and trust for him is only increasing, this is unique in India polity, nowhere ever before has this been seen that the leadership equation with masses continues to grow," Amar Patnaik said.

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The BJP leader claimed that there is anger against BJP over the policies that have been followed, resulting in price rise, inflation, high price in domestic gas, which affected the women, the households, middle class suffering after the pandemic and nothing has been done for them.