Cong retains Chamarajanagar ZP, BJP fast catching up

The Congress has retained its stronghold in Chamarajanagar Zilla Panchayat, by winning 14 seats out of 23. While BJP has won nine seats, JD(S) has not opened its account. The Congress had won 15 seats in the previous polls. BJP which had won six seats in the last election has increased its tally to nine.

In the previous polls, Congress had won the ZP and all the four TPs in the district. This time, the BJP has won a majority in Chamarajanagar TP. Congress has retained Kollegal, Yalandur and Gundlupet TPs.

The Bahujan Samaja Party, which had fielded its candidate for the first time, has been successful in winning Ambale TP constituency, Yalandur taluk.

Congress, which had won 49 TP constituencies in the previous polls, has now won 50 seats. The BJP, which had won 33 TP seats, has also added one more to its account.

Lesson for party, govt: Kharge

Expressing surprise over the panchayat polls results in Karnataka, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday said it was a lesson for both the State government as well as the party.

Reacting to results, Kharge told reporters that both the Congress and the State government should analyse the results and learn a lesson from the poll outcome.
Disagreeing with the arguments that results would reflect the performance of the Siddaramaiah-led government in Karnataka, he said that the elections to the local bodies were generally fought on local issues and local candidates mattered more than party.