JOIN USULB solace for Cong, gets over 500 seats
The BJP’s emphatic Lok Sabha victory appears to have had little impact on voters in the urban local body (ULB) elections, in which the Congress has emerged on top.
Of the 1,221 seats across 56 ULBs that went to polls just days after the Lok Sabha election results, the Congress has won 509, the BJP 366 and the JD(S) 174. Independents have won 160 seats. The results were announced on Friday by the State Election Commission.
ULB elections are considered a barometer of the mood of the electorate at the local level.
Polling was held to elect representatives for 1,296 wards across eight city municipal councils (CMC), 33 town municipal councils (TMC) and 22 town panchayats (TP) on May 29.
While results for 1,221 seats are declared, counting of votes in the remaining 75 seats will be done on June 3 along with the Nelamangala CMC and Sorab TP that go to polls on June 1, according to State Election Commissioner P N Sreenivasachary.
The BJP has done well in the town panchayats where it won 126 out of the 290 seats, ahead of the Congress (97). But the Congress has won the highest number of seats in CMCs and TMCs.
“This shows that people are with the Congress and the party is still strong,” Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao said. “Those who had written us off after the Lok Sabha election results, what will they say now?”
The Congress fought the ULB polls on its own, without a pre-poll alliance with the JD(S) with whom it rules the state in a coalition. “In ULBs where we have won with a majority, we will assume power. Wherever we don’t have numbers, we will either take or give support to the JD(S),” Rao said.
The Congress can join hands with the JD(S) to stake a claim on five CMCs, 20 TMCs and 7 TPs where it has not won on its own.
Last year, when 105 ULBs went to polls, the Congress won 982, the BJP 929 and the JD(S) 375. Even then, the Congress had fought on its own. Friday’s results have reinforced the view within the Congress that the party was better off without an alliance with the JD(S).
BJP MLC N Ravikumar said the saffron party came second because the Congress-JD(S) coalition ruled the state. “Usually, ULB results favour the government of the day,” he said.