Karnataka Urban Local Body vote counting is underway for the 102 urban bodies which went to poll on August 31. The voting percent of the local urban body was phenomenal, it was 68 per cent. Karnataka’s 2,633 civic wards comprising 29 Municipalities, 53 town municipalities and 23 town panchayats and Mysuru’s 135 wards.
As the counting in underway, out of the 2,633 wards, the Congress has already won 982 seats so far, followed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 927, JD(S)375 and BSP 13 and 363 have won by others. As per the report, Karnataka Chief Minister Kumaraswamy is expected to arrive at 4 pm, and the Congress leader Dinesh Gundu is also likely to address the press conference.
In all, 8,340 candidates, including 2,306 from the Congress, 2,203 from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and 1,397 from the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) are in the fray for the ULBs, while 814 contested from the city corporations, including 135 from Congress, 130 from BJP and 129 from JD-S.
As the Congress party is leading in Karnataka local Urban body election, when they were celebrating the victory in the Urban body an acid was thrown on the crowd leaving 8 people injured in that attack. While the Police is busy finding out the unidentified attackers. According to the report, Congress has won two seats in Tumukar Municipal Corporation.
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While, Congress claimed to have BJP’s hands behind this attack, as they have shown their intolerance toward victory, “We have many reasons to suspect that the BJP is involved. They have shown their intolerance towards our victory. We want a thorough probe into the case,” said Congress leader K E Radhakrishna.
This is a crucial election for BJP, which had emerged as one of the largest party in during the assembly election, but this election seems to be in favour of Congress. Since, BJP has been targeting Kumaraswami led government saying, this government would not last long. The early trends showed that BJP is far behind the Congress party.
While, BJP’s Karnataka Chief and Former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa has already conceded its defeat attributing it to Coalition government in the state. While, keeping an eye on 2019 Lok Sabha election he said, BJP’s performance in 2019 election would be far better than this.
Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said, the state’s electorate would back the Congress JD(S) coalition in the Parliamentary polls as they are not going to contest separately. “Congress is not lagging behind. Neck-to-neck fight is there and if you combine secular votes, they are the most. These elections are based on minor issues and local candidates. These results don’t hold much significance,” Kharge told news agency ANI.
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