=Though the BJD contestants won three Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in Erasama block in Jagatsinghpur district in the last phase of the Panchayat elections held on Sunday, the ruling party lost the fight in ZP Zone 4 that includes the proposed Posco project region.

Congress candidate Sarada Jena, a former ZP member, grabbed the seat against his BJD rival Nimain Charana Swain, a former Erasama block chairman and a close confident of local BJD MLA and former Minister Damodar Rout. In the last ZP elections in Erasama block held in the year 2007, the Congress candidates had bagged two seats, the BJD one and Independent one out of the total four.