BENGALURU: In a sign that it may have recovered from its poor showing in the assembly election, the Congress on Monday emerged with a slight but clear lead over rival BJP in the keenly contested polls to 105 urban local bodies in Karnataka.
The Congress won 982 – about 37% — of the 2,662 wards across city corporations, city and town municipalities and town panchayats for which elections were held on August 31, and together with alliance partner JD(S), which won 375 wards, will keep control of a majority of the urban local bodies. On the other hand, despite winning 929 wards for a close second-place finish, the BJP is likely to govern just about 31 local bodies, where it secured a majority.
The much-debated strategy of the Congress and the JD(S) of having a “friendly fight” among its candidates seems to have paid off as the coalition, put together, won 1,370 seats, including 13 by the BSP.
“The results show that Congress and JD(S), with their combined strength, can decimate BJP,” said KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao. All speculations that the party could weaken with an alliance with the JD(S) can now be put to rest, he said.
“Voters in urban areas are no longer supporting BJP and that was evident from today’s results,” said Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who announced that the two partners will work together in civic bodies with a fractured mandate.
The result can be seen as a setback for BJP that emerged as the single largest party in the May assembly polls. Despite the BJP’s attempt to congratulate itself for Monday’s results – an improvement over its 2013 tally – it was evident that the party leaders were less than satisfied with the outcome.
“The results are satisfactory but we could have performed better. The party will focus on winning 22 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in the upcoming general elections,” state BJP president B S Yeddyurappa said.
Political analysts believe that the results should worry BJP. “Urban areas are their (BJP’s) forte but they haven’t been able to do well. The Congress is ahead of them. If a post-poll alliance can bring an advantage, it has to be seen how much of an impact a pre-poll alliance (between Congress and JD-S) can make,” said Dr Sandeep Shastri, political scientist.
The BJP, that hoped to win 60 per cent of all local bodies, managed to win 4 out of 7 in DK and Udupi districts and retained power in Shivamogga.
Ullal municipality in Dakshina Kannada slipped from Congress’ hands for the first time in many years. The SDPI appears to have rocked the Congress’ boat. Despite not using pictures of its women candidates in publicity materials, three women won on SDPI symbol in Ullal.
While the JD(S) trumped the Congress in Tumakuru, Mandya and Hassan, the BJP emerged as the single largest party in Mysore city corporation. However, the Congress-JD(S) coalition holds a clear majority in the civic body.