Both the ruling BJP and opposition Congress in Karnataka on Wednesday claimed major victories for candidates backed by them in the recent elections to over 5,700 village panchayats even as counting of votes polled in the grass-root level exercise was underway. Elections were held for a total of 91,339 seats in 5,728 Gram Panchayats of 226 talukas in the state, out of which candidates have been elected unopposed for 8,074 seats. Elections were conducted for 43,238 seats in the first phase on December 22, while voting took place for 39,378 seats in the second phase on December 27. A total of 2,22,814 candidates were in the fray.
Though there were no official declaration of results till night, BJP state chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah maintained that candidates backed by their parties were winning in maximum seats.
A total of 2,22,814 candidates contested the election, while 8,074 were elected unopposed.
Though these polls are not held on party symbols, all political parties have put in efforts to ensure that the candidate supported by them wins, so as to have their hold on grass-root level politics.
In a statement, Kateel said BJP "won maximum seats", for which he gave credit to various strategies drawn by the party.
He said rural-centric schemes such as Gram Swaraj and activation of booth level committees helped in taking to the people the measures initiated by the Central and state governments for development.
"People supported the development and voted in favour of the BJP backed candidates," Kateel said.
Siddaramaiah in a series of tweets claimed that the farmers taught the BJP a lesson.
"Rural India is frustrated by the policies implemented by @BJP4India. Farmers are against anti-farmer laws and they found Gram Panchayat elections as the perfect opportunity to teach @BJP4India a lesson. Reports suggest that @INCKarnataka supported candidates are winning," he said.
"Congress has always stood firmly with farmers and rural India. This has always instilled confidence among people. Tradition of winning has continued," he tweeted.
Noting that this was a challenging time for the Congress in the state, the former chief minister expressed apprehensions that the BJP might lure its winning candidates to switch over.
The JD(S) has not yet made any statement on the poll outcome.
