Karnataka civic polls: Congress wins majority after close fight

Congress party on Monday emerged as winners in Karnataka civic polls with 982 seats out of 2662 seats across the state.

According to the state election commission, BJP secured 929 seats while JD(S) won 375 seats in the elections which were held on August 31.

The remaining seats were bagged by the independent candidates and others.

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After the BJP came second in the ULB polls, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy told reporters that "normally" city voters used to vote for BJP.

"But with the outcome of this result, even the city voters have shown full support for the coalition government led by Congress and JDS," he said.

At the post-victory press conference, Karnataka Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “The election results are indication that Congress has good connection with the people, and has conveyed a message to the Opposition party (BJP) which had been stating that the Congress has been weakened after forming an alliance with the JD(S)."

A total of 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the BJP and 1,397 from the JD-S had contested in the urban local body elections. The polls had registered a record turnout of 68 per cent for elections to the 2,709 civic wards spanning 29 city municipalities, 53 town municipalities, 23 town panchayats and 135 wards at Mysuru, Shivamogga and Tumakuru city corporations.

In the 2013 urban local bodies elections held in 4,976 seats, the Congress had won 1,960 seats, while the BJP and the JD-S had won 905 seats each, and Independents had bagged the remaining 1,206 seats.

The August 31 elections were considered a popular test of the coalition government which was formed post-May assembly polls which had yielded a hung verdict and also was indicative of the voters’ mood before the Lok Sabha elections.

The BJP had ended up as the single largest party in the assembly polls but had failed to gather numbers to form the government, which paved the way for the Congress and JD(S) to stitch an alliance and take over the reins of administration.

(With inputs from PTI)