With 28 districts voting today in the fourth phase of Odisha's Panchayat polls that will culminated on February 21, political pundits believe this election might create history. Elections are being held for 853 Zilla Parishad(ZP) seats, 6801 Panchayat samitis seats, 6802 sarpanch seats and 92029 ward members. Out of the 700 ZP seats that went for election in the first 4 phases, BJD maintained its lead in 276 ZP zones followed by BJP in 193 ZP zones while Congress managed to win 42 ZP seats. Also read: Odisha panchayat polls: BJP makes impressive gains; Naveen Patnaik losing grip on state? In 2012, BJD won 656 ZP seats, Congress won 126 ZP seats and BJP managed to raise its flag at 36 ZP seats only.

Source: India Today February 19, 2017 14:03 UTC