The results of the elections to the urban local bodies declared on Monday showed interesting trends in different regions of Karnataka.
While the coastal region, predictably, has favoured the BJP, big chunks of Old Mysore region have gone the way of the JD(S). In North Karnataka districts, where the BJP was hoping to make big gains, it has been disappointed.
North Karnataka
The party’s efforts to leverage the alleged ‘discrimination’ against North Karnataka by the coalition government seems to have failed, with the party not gaining much in the ULB elections. The Congress, one of the coalition partners, has done well especially in the Hyderabad Karnataka region. For the BJP, there is not much gain even in the districts of Bombay Karnataka, where the party registered a good vote share in the Assembly elections.
In the 24 ULBs of the Hyderabad Karnataka region, the Congress has come to power in 13 while the BJP has won five. Meanwhile, the other coalition partner, JD(S), too has gained a few seats and put the Congress in an advantageous position in at least three of the remaining local bodies of the region where there is no clear majority for any party.
In the Bombay Karnataka region, out of the 38 ULBs in five districts that went to the polls, the BJP has gained in Belagavi and Bagalkot districts while receiving setbacks in Gadag and Haveri districts.
In Ranebennur of Haveri district, represented by R. Shankar, MLA of KPJP, the party registered gains by winning 10 seats out of the total 35, and with BJP winning 15 seats and Congress nine, it is going to be the kingmaker.
Vokkaliga heartland
Even though the JD(S) finished third after the Congress and the BJP in the polls to 105 ULBs across the State, the Vokkaliga heartland in the Old Mysore region has once proved to be the party’s strongest pillar of support.
As many as 221 of the 345 seats from 102 ULBs (excluding the three city corporations) the party won in the elections came from the Old Mysore districts of Hassan, Mandya, Tumakuru, and Mysuru. The party has not only swept the polls in Hassan district, but has also put up an impressive performance in Mandya district and held its own in Mysuru and Tumakuru districts.
The JD(S), which is part of the ruling coalition with the Congress in the State, will be taking control of most, if not all, urban local bodies in Hassan and Mandya.
Coastal belt
The BJP continued its sway in its stronghold, coastal Karnataka, by winning 193 seats out of 386 seats of different urban local bodies that went to polls on August 31. The Congress came second winning 145 seats, followed by 12 seats by the Janata Dal (Secular), 11 seats by Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and 25 Independents in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada Districts.
BJP got majority to rule in the CMCs of Puttur, Udupi, and Sirsi in UK. Among the TMCs, BJP got clear majority in Kundapura in Udupi district and Kumta in UK. The Party also got clear majority in Saligrama Town Panchayat in Udupi district.
The Congress is in a comfortable position in Dandeli CMC, Haliyal TMC and Yellapura TP.
Voters gave a fractured verdict in the remaining ULBs — Ullal and Karwar CMCs and Bantwal, Karkala and Ankola TMCs — in these three districts.
(With inputs from Girish Pattanashetti in Hubballi, Laiqh A. Khan in Mysuru, and Anil Kumar Sastry in Mangaluru)