Bhubaneswar, Feb 14: In yesterday’s first phase of the panchayat polls, the BJP claimed 64 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats, the BJD won 96 seats, 11 seats went in favour of Opposition Congress and 5 seats were won by other parties. Till the last reports came in, results of 12 seats were stated to be unavailable. The first phase polling was held in 188 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats spread over 65 blocks in 29 districts where 716 candidates were contesting. Elections were also contested for 1,506 Sarpanch and Samiti member posts. In Kalahandi, BJP had a clean win by winning all the nine ZP seats, in Ganjam the ruling party won 12 of the 16 ZP seats and in Balasore, 9 of the 10 seats were won by BJD and the lone went for Congress. 71 per cent of the 58,28,446 voters exercised their franchise in the first phase of the three-tire poll which was by and large peaceful barring some stray incidents of violence which left at least four persons injured. While Sonepur district recorded the highest 84.3% turnout, Bolangir district had the lowest 60% turnout. Disruption were also seen in polling as some booths witnessed violence, snatching of ballot papers and ballot box and other activities. As per the officials, there are 853 ZP seats in Odisha where elections will be held for 848 seats while there will be no elections in five seats due to various reasons.
