Continuing its winning streak, the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) swept municipal elections on Saturday, capturing 76 of 108 urban local bodies. The party won 766 of the 852 Zilla Parishad seats in 30 districts in last month’s panchayat elections.

In addition, the ruling camp has secured the positions of mayor and chairperson in all 76 bodies. With the municipal laws recently amended, this is the first time that people in Odisha can directly elect mayors of corporations, chairpersons of municipalities and NACs, in addition to ward councillors.

Of the 105 municipalities and notified area councils (NACs) in the state, the BJD emerged victorious in 73, while the BJP managed to secure just 16, followed by the Congress at seven. Nine urban local bodies were secured by Independents.

The Naveen Patnaik-led party also registered its win in the three municipal corporations of Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur. Thanking the people for re-imposing faith in his party, BJD President Naveen Patnaik, in a tweet, said: “Thank all the people of #Odisha for the overwhelming support in #OdishaMunicipalElection. The win is a reflection of the outpouring of love for @bjd_odisha and the untiring effort of thousands of party workers. #OdishaLovesBJD”