The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken a massive lead over its opponents in the Assam panchayat polls as counting of votes entered second day on Thursday. 

BJP won the highest number of seats in the first day of counting on Wednesday, with 45% of declared results going in its favour, followed by the Congress, the state election commission said.

The counting began at 8 am on Wednesday and Thursday is the tentative day for the final results. The voting was carried out through paper ballots.

Over 78,000 candidates, including from major parties - BJP, Congress, Bodoland Peoples Front (BPF), Asom Gana Parishad and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) - contested the elections for over 26,000 seats in Assam panchayat bodies. 

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Assam State Election Commissioner HN Bora said the counting to all the 26,808 posts would continue the whole night and was likely to take entire Thursday. 

Wednesday results: 

Annpuncing the outcome of Wednesday's counting, Bora said results for 1,218 posts were out. Out of this, 1,089 posts are gaon panchayat members (GPM), 71 gaon panchayat presidents (GPP) and 58 anchalik panchayat members (APM). No final result of any zila parishad member (ZPM) was available on Wednesday.

Assam panchayat polls results live latest updates:

BJP: 481 GPM posts, 33 GPP posts, 30 APM posts

Congress: 294 GPM posts, 20 GPP posts, 15 APM posts

AIUDF: 15 GPM posts, two GPP posts, 8 APM posts

CPI(M): Five GPM posts

CPI: Two GPM posts

Independents: 175 GPM posts, six GPP posts, three APM posts

The BJP won 33 GPP posts, Congress 20, AGP 10, AIUDF two posts and Independents six.

"The counting is going on peacefully. No anomalies have been reported from any counting hall in any part of the state," Bora said.

The elections were held on December 5 and 9 to elect 21,990 GPM, 2,199 GPP, 2,199 APM and 420 ZPM across the state, recording an overall voting of 82%.

While there were 78,571 contestants, 734 were elected uncontested. 

(With PTI inputs)