Political parties will get to know their hold in the urban landscape in the state as counting of votes polled in the March 7 elections to 208 Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) will be taken up on Monday.

The counting of votes will be taken up at taluk headquarters in the state at 8 am and the first results are expected by 10 am. The results will be updated on the website of the State Election Commission www.karsec.gov.in

The civic polls witnessed 66.25 per cent of the 85 lakh voters exercising their franchise.

The elections to seven city corporations (excluding Bangalore), 43 city municipal corporations, 65 town municipal councils and 93 town panchayats were held.
The seven city corporations that went to the polls were Hubli-Dharwad, Mangalore, Davangere, Mysore, Bellary, Belgaum and Gulbarga.

The Congress fielded the highest number of candidates (4,492), followed by the BJP (3,954) and the JD-S (3,651). In all, 21,974 candidates contested the polls for 4,867 seats in the 208 ULBs.

The polls will be a litmus test for all major parties ahead of the Assembly polls. Two new regional parties, the BSR Congress of B Sriramulu and the KJP of B S Yeddyurappa, tested political waters for the first time. The outcome of the poll will reveal the impact of these outfits on the state’s political landscape.

For the ruling BJP, which has a stronghold in urban areas, the elections are crucial to prove its popularity, particularly after Yeddyurappa launched the KJP. 

The Congress, which launched a high-voltage campaign across the state, is keen to use the civic polls as a stepping stone to come back to power in the Assembly. The JD(S) wants to consolidate its influence in the Old-Mysore belt and also make inroads into the North Karnataka region.

 In the previous polls held in 2007, the Congress had taken the first place winning 1,606 wards followed by the JD(S)1,502 wards.The BJP stood third, winning 1,180 of the total 5,007 wards.