BJD scripts history, lands zila parishad president posts in all Odisha districts

The BJD, which swept the zila parishad seats recently, has scripted history by having their zila parishad presidents installed in all the 30 districts of the state. Around 21 of the 30 presidents are women.

In the zila parishad elections announced on March 1, the BJD won 766 out of 852 seats. This was much higher than the 476 seats it had won in 2017. In four districts -- Jajpur, Bhadrak, Jharsuguda and Deogarh -- the BJD won all the seats, leaving no space for the opposition.

The opposition space got further smaller with the BJP winning 42 seats and Congress 37 seats out of 852. In 2017, the BJP had won 297 seats and the Congress 60. Having secured such a high number of seats, it was expected that the post of zilla parishad president in all the districts would go to the BJD.


Chief minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik decided to select young faces as zilla parishad presidents to promote new leadership for the future. Patnaik has laid special emphasis on developing women leadership with 21 out of 30 zilla parishad presidents being women.

Saraswati Majhi (23), president of Rayagada district zilla parishad, is the youngest president of the state. Fifteen of the 30 zilla parishad presidents are less than 40 years old.