BENGALURU: With the counting of votes for the gram panchayat elections stretching, the State Election Commission (SEC) has said that the complete results can be expected only by Thursday morning. Though the initial numbers showed that the BJP, which is in power in the state, had done well in about 48 per cent of the gram panchayats, as the results continued to trickle in, the party seemed to be putting up a better show in about 52 per cent of the seats.
In an official statement on Wednesday, the SEC said, “While the gram panchayat results from 54,041 out of 91,339 seats have come in, the results for the remaining 36,781 seats are still not available and will be expected on Thursday morning.’’ The process of counting of ballots is long-drawn as each round takes about two hours. After every round, the counting agents are changed and, if there is any objection, the process can take longer.
While officially, the gram panchayat elections are apolitical, with no party symbols, most candidates are unofficially supported by political parties. Over 5,700 gram panchayats went to the polls in two phases this month. The outcome of these grassroots-level elections have impressed the party so much that CM B S Yediyurappa has decided to himself address the media about the party’s performance on Thursday.
GP election results break from tradition
The BJP making inroads is significant because the gram panchayat elections have traditionally either gone in favour of the Congress or the Janata Party/JDS right from the 80s when the Panchayati Raj system was implemented in the state.
The BJP has done well beyond its traditional areas of influence too, including many parts of Old Mysore region which is considered the turf of the Congress and JDS. While the two parties have performed well in their strongholds, their areas of influence have considerably shrunk. An elated Arun Singh, BJP general secretary in charge of Karnataka, said, “The party has performed well in non-traditional areas.
I spoke to minister K Sudhakar, who has done good work, and our party has won in all the 27 gram panchayats in Chikkaballapur where we had none in the previous election. The results are very encouraging. We will wait for the final results to come in.’’Congress leader Siddaramaiah and State BJP chief Nalin Kumar Kateel have claimed victories in the elections.