From contests that were decided by a toss to one-vote margin victories, the much-awaited gram panchayat election result day remained action packed in the rural areas of Karnataka on Wednesday.
Keenly fought, the elections had seen close family members fighting against each other. Many wards had seen siblings, father –son, and mother-in-law – daughter-in-law, among others, in the fray. It remained a mixed verdict for many families on Wednesday.
By night, results had been declared in many wards, bringing in much relief to the contestants, while in some other wards the counting was still in progress. .
The final results of 5,728 gram panchayats that went to polls on December 22 and 27 will be out by Thursday morning. A note from the State Election Commission (SEC) said that results for 54,041 seats had been declared since the counting of ballots commenced on Wednesday morning. The results of 36,781 seats would be available by the early hours of Thursday.
Barring Bidar district where the SEC had deployed electronic voting machines (EVMs), rest of the State had seen ballot paper being used. In Bidar, counting was completed in less than six hours.
Gram panchayat elections are seen as a barometer to test the popularity of party members though the polls are not fought on party symbols. The polls registered a turnout of 82.13% in the first phase on December 22 and 80.71% in the second phase on December 27. In many wards, many candidates were declared elected unopposed.
By afternoon, as results started coming in from across the State, leaders in the political spectrum claimed victories to the candidates backed by their respective parties despite this elections being not fought on party symbols.
