Defeat in backyards of stalwarts worries Congress

The Opposition Congress’ stellar performance in the ULB elections may have come as a morale booster for the party ahead of the Assembly polls.

But the fact that it has fared badly in places where its senior leaders claim to have considerable clout is a bitter pill to swallow for the party.

The party’s performance in Mysore (Siddaramaiah’s hometown), Tumkur district (KPCC chief G Parameshwara’s home district), Gulbarga (Union Minister Mallikarjuna Kharge’s hometown), Kolar (Union Minister K H Muniyappa’s hometown) and Chikkaballapur (which Union Minister Veerappa Moily represents as MP), has not been all that impressive.

In Mysore City Corporation, the Congress has again fallen short of the majority. In Mysore district as a whole, the party has got just 19 seats more compared to the last elections.

In Tumkur district, the party has secured just seven seats more compared to 2007. In Koratagere (TP), from where Parameshwara hails, the Congress has secured only five seats, out of the total 14 – same as in 2007.

No seat in Chintamani

The results in the Chintamani CMC in Chikkaballapur district has come as the biggest loss of face to the party as it has failed to win a single seat there. Chintamani is part of K H Muniyappa’s Kolar Lok Sabha constituency.

The party has, however, made inroads into the bastions of both the BJP and JD(S), springing surprise results in places like Mangalore, Udupi, Davangere and Ramanagar. In the elections held for a total 4,976 wards of 208 ULBs, including seven City Corporations, the Congress has won about 1,960 wards – 354 more compared to the last elections held in 2007.

Of the seven City Corporations to which polls were held, the Congress has emerged victorious in three - Bellary, Davangere and Mangalore. It is the single largest party in Mysore and Gulbarga Corporations.

The Congress has almost swept Bellary and Davangere Corporations by trouncing the BJP, which had secured a clear majority there in 2007.

Another surprise result has come from the communally-sensitive Mangalore City Corporation, which was considered a BJP bastion. The Congress has won 34 of the total 60 seats. The Congress has defeated the JD(S) in the Ramanagar CMC elections, which JD(S) State chief H D Kumaraswamy has personally nurtured for long.

‘People wanted change’

Parameshwara said the ULB results may not be a pointer to the Assembly elections, but definitely people have shown their desire for change.

“The enlightened citizens have favoured the Congress and rejected the BJP and JD(S). They are fed up with maladministration, nepotism and anarchy of the ruling party,” he said.