The Biju Janata Dal is looking to win all three mayor posts with a comfortable lead ahead of the BJP and the Congress. The counting of votes for 109 civic bodies, including the municipal corporation of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur, began at 8am. In Bhubaneswar, the counting got delayed following tension at BJB College strong room, Kalinga TV reported.
Follow live updates of Odisha civic polls counting
According to the trends so far, BJD is leading on 946 seats for corporator/councillor election, while BJP is leading on 226. Congress is in the third position with a lead on 90 seats. In the mayor/chairperson election, BJD has a comfortable lead on 72 seats, while the BJP is leading on 17. Congress has a lead on 26seats.
As of now, BJD is leading in Jajpur municipality, Kendrapara's Pattamundai, Khurdha's Balugaon, Bargarh's Bijepur, Bolangir municipality, Bolangir's Kantabanji, Talcher, Bargarh municipality, Cuttack Athagarh, Balasore municipality.
As far as the mayor posts are concerned, BJP has a clear advantage with Sulochana Das leading in Bhubaneswar; Sanghamitra Dalei leading in Berhampur and Subash Singh in Cuttack. Sanghamitra Dalei is leading by 39,574 votes, Sulochana Das is leading by 30, 989 votes and Subash Singh is leading by 27,524 votes.
This is the first time that Odisha voters are directly electing their mayors and chairpersons. According to the State Election Commission data, nearly 65% of voters exercised their franchise in the 106 civic bodies, while about 54% people turned out to cast their votes to elect councillors to three municipal corporations.
{{/usCountry}}This is the first time that Odisha voters are directly electing their mayors and chairpersons. According to the State Election Commission data, nearly 65% of voters exercised their franchise in the 106 civic bodies, while about 54% people turned out to cast their votes to elect councillors to three municipal corporations.
{{/usCountry}}In the panchayat elections held last month in Odisha, the BJD had won in 766 wards out of 852 Zilla Parishads, while the BJP and Congress won 42 and 37 wards respectively. Independents and other parties managed to win seven seats