Cong leaders won most GP seats: CM

Political party leaders continued to claim that their respective parties have outsmarted their rivals in the gram panchayat elections. This is so despite the elections were fought without party symbols.

On Saturday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that the Congress backed candidates have won the maximum number of seats in the polls.

Speaking to reporters Siddaramaiah said that around 38,000 Congress-backed candidates had won, while around 27,000 BJP-backed candidates had emerged victorious. According to reports he has received, he said around 12,000 candidates backed by the JD(S) had won GP seats. He also said that problems pertaining to allocating reservation to chairmen and deputy chairmen of gram panchayats, if any, would be addressed immediately.

BJP leader K S Eshwarappa, however, countered the Congress’ claims. “RD&PR minister H K Patil has said that the BJP can never make Karnataka ‘Congress-free’ and that the GP poll results were testimony to it. I ask Patil was it the case in Gadag, Tirthahalli, and Sagar? BJP has gained a clear majority in these places,” he added.