The Congress, which is still smarting from its humiliating defeat in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls, has now a reason to smile. The party once again emerged victorious in the urban local bodies (ULB) polls in Karnataka held on May 29, by wresting 509 of the total 1,221 seats spread across 63 local bodies. In all, 19 town panchayats, 30 town municipal councils and seven city municipal councils went for polls.
The Congress, which has a vote share of 42 per cent, has won 19 ULBs and hopes to share power in 13 others. The BJP has wrested 366 seats with a vote share of 30 per cent, while the JD(S) has bagged 174 seats by cornering 14.5 per cent of votes.
The polls saw BSP garner three seats, CPI(M) bag two, Independents 160 and others seven.
While the Congress and the JD(S) are part of the coalition government in Karnataka, the allies chose to go for a friendly fight in the local body polls. The result has no doubt enthused a sulking Congress as it continued to hold sway in the urban local bodies.
The poll outcome has triggered a debate on how the BJP, which got a thumping victory (25 out of 28 seats) in the Lok Sabha polls was left behind in the local body polls held within a month of the Lok Sabha polling.
In Karnataka, there are 212 ULBs. Last August, as many as 109 ULBs went to the polls as their term was to end in September 2018. Then too, the Congress had bagged 982, the BJP 929 and the JD(S) 375.
This time, the Congress has once again outdone its opponents. In the second phase, 103 ULBs whose term ends between March and July 2019 were to go for the polls. But only 63 ULBs went for polls as the remaining 39 ULBs have cases pending before the High Court over reservation.
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Former chief minister Siddaramaiah was quick to respond to the party's feat in the ULB polls. "The ULB result is a befitting reply to those who said it is endgame for the Congress after its Lok Sabha polls debacle," said Siddaramaiah.
KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao remarked that the poll outcome has surprised him. "I am surprised to see the two election results. There are reports about the mismatch between votes polled on the electronic voting machine and the actual voting that took place in the Lok Sabha polls. Now, the 63 ULBs went to poll within a month after the Lok Sabha. We need to look deeper into the difference in voting in such a short span of time," observed Rao.
The poll result has also indicated that the Congress performs better outside the alliance. The two parties, who have fought fierce battles in Old Mysuru region over the decades, formed an alliance after the May 2018 assembly polls delivered a fractured verdict. However, the workers of the two parties have not overcome the bitterness of the past and refused to join hands. The non-cooperation of the allies affected the combined tally of the coalition partners who won only two seats out of the 28 in the Lok Sabha.
The rout in the Lok Sabha polls and the Congress's good performance in the local body polls hint that the parties did better in a friendly fight rather than in an alliance.