The party managed to form alliance with independent candidates to win the chairperson posts in additional seven ULBs, sources said.
Similarly, Congress was able to clinch 11 chairperson posts, up from 10 councils where it had clear majority.
More From This Section
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which could not bag majority seats in any of the ULBs, was successful in installing its partymen as chairpersons in two places -Rairangpur and Barbil.
Independent candidates have been able to form councils at five places.
In the September 19 elections, 66 ULBs including Berhampur Municipal Corporation (BMC) had gone for polls .The results showed that BJD had clear majority in 41 places and Congress in 10 places while BJP had emerged as the single largest party in one place.
Because of fractured mandate, no party was in position to form councils in at least 13 ULBs. Since the anti-defection law does not apply to the councillors elected on party symbols in the ULB polls, last ditch effort was made by all political parties to woo the members from the opposite camp and independents to get their partymen elected as chairpersons.
In Berhampur, BJD councillor K Madhabi has been elected as the Mayor after bagging 29 votes vis-à-vis 10 votes in favour of Congress.
BJD supremo and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik expressed his satisfaction over the poll results.
"We have managed to bag 48 ULBs, which is 74 per cent of all ULBs which went to polls," said Patnaik, after the state election commission announced the chairperson election results. The Congress, however, blamed the BJD for misusing its power to get maximum areas under its control.
"The BJD tried everything to bring the results in its favour, only to show that people are supporting the party. Otherwise, there is nothing new in this election today," said Jayadev Jena, president of Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC).