Congress is looking for a big win in the forthcoming Assembly polls in Karnataka after winning most of the seats in civic polls today. The ruling BJP received a massive blow as it lost four major city corporations.
The victory is a positive sign for the Congress ahead of the assembly polls. While Congress won more than 1,800 wards, former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda’s JDS came with second with 890 and BJP bagged only 876 wards till afternoon out of 4976 seats in 207 urban local bodies.
Congress is leading in four out of seven city corporations. The results in Dakshin Kannada could be announced in favour of the party too. The party is also leading in Mysore, which was dominated by JDS. The BSR Congress of Bellary brothers was routed in their stronghold. It won only 77 wards.
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BJP suffered a huge defeat in its stronghold of coastal Karnataka. The party gained seats more from the rural areas, while Congress won and is leading in urban centres. Congress won the city corporations of Davanagere, Mangalore and Bellary. However, BJP was routed in Bellary, a home to Reddy brothers of the ruling party. While Congress won 21 of the 35 wards in Bellary, BJP managed to win 11 of 65 seats in Mysore.
The results showed that BJP, KJP and BSR Congress were rejected by the urban voters. This time, BJP has to be satisfied with fewer seats than the civic polls in 2007. The party has to review the reason for its defeat.
It can be noted that BS Yeddyurappa’s Karnataka Janata Party (KJP) received most of the BJP votes by fielding its candidates in the polls. Yeddyurappa, who had quit BJP late last year and floated his political party, could a threat to BJP ahead of the assembly and Lok Sabha polls.
However, Yeddyurappa’s KJP failed to gain maximum seats and won only 250 plus wards across the state.