Pics: Mohan Kuthar/Mounesh Vishwakarma
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Apr 28: The Congress which is in power in the state has stumbled in the hustings, BJP has outperformed its rival with a good margin in the recently held elections to 52 urban local bodies in the state, the results of which were announced on Wednesday April 27.

Election to 52 urban local bodies had been conducted on April 24. These urban bodies were split into city municipalities, town municipalities and town panchayats during the upgradation process following reorganization of gram panchayats, and therefore election had been necessitated. Counting of votes in respect of Managuli town panchayat in Vijayapura district will be held on May 5. In respect of the balance 51 urban bodies, result in respect of 986 seats has been published. No result could be announced pertaining to one seat in Belagali town panchayat, as no nomination papers were received for that seat.

Out of 985 seats, results pertaining to which have been declared, BJP has won 415 seats as against 353 wrested by the Congress. JD(S) with 57, CPM with two, SDPI with 1 and CPI (ML) with one seats are far behind. 156 seats have gone to independent candidates.

Overall, BJP is in majority in 19 local bodies, Congress in 12, JD(S) in 1, while the electorate has given hung verdict in 16 cases. In three bodies, independents are in majority. In Jali town panchayat in Uttara Kannada district, home district of minister, R V Deshpande, 12 out of the total 20 seats have gone to independents. In Arabhavi town panchayat, home constituency of BJP leader, Balachandra Jarkiholi, BJP candidates have won 13 seats as against 3 by independents out of total 16 seats.

Within the city here, BJP secured 76 out of 123 seats which went into polls, These seats are shared between one city municipality and four town municipalities. In these bodies, Congress has bagged 39 seats as against four by the JDS. In Bidadi municipality in Ramanagara district where D K Sghivakumar is the district in-charge minister, JDS will rise to power. In the lone municipality which went to polls in Chitradurga district, BJP will rise to power in Chitradurga, while there is no absolute majority for any particular party in Davanagere. In the three municipalities in Ballari, BJP has won 26 seats as against 22 by Congress, and in all of them, independents will tilt the balance and decide who will take over administration. In Belagavi district, BJP has won 116 seats as compared to 81 by the Congress. In Vijayapura, Congress has fared better with 34 seats as against 39 won by the BJP.

In the two town panchayats which went to polls in Dakshina Kannada district, BJP has won 21 out of 35 seats. Vittal and Kotekar town panchayats have been wrested by the BJP whereas Kaup, home constituency of Vinay Kumar Sorake, has gone to Congress, which has bagged 12 out of 23 seats here.