NEW DELHI, Dec 30: The BJP has received yet another shock from the urban voters who had always solidly backed the party in the last few years. After losing out the Chandigarh municipal corporation to the debutant Aam Aadmi Party and totally trounced by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the party has conceded lead to the Congress in the urban local bodies elections in Karnataka where the party is in power.
The Congress party in Karnataka outsmarted the ruling BJP with the grand old party emerging as the single largest party in the urban local body elections, voting for which was held on December 27 and the results were announced on Thursday.
A total of 58 Urban Local Bodies (ULB) consisting of 1,184 wards went to the polls of which the Congress won 498 seats, the BJP 437, JDS 45 and others 204. More significantly, the Congress polled 42.06 per cent votes, BJP 36.90 per cent, JDS 3.8 per cent and others 17.22 per cent.
However, of the 166 City Municipal Council wards, the Congress got 61, BJP 67, JDS 12 while others got 26. Of the 441 Town Municipal Council wards, the Congress got 201, BJP 176 and JDS 21. Of the 588 wards of the Pattana Panchayats, the Congress bagged 236, BJP 194 and JDS 12 while others won in 135 wards.
In West Bengal, the TMC of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee further strengthened its position in the hill district of Darjeeling where the Gorkha Janmukti Mocha hitherto ruled supreme. Two senior GJM leaders including Binay Tamang and the GJM MLA Rohit Sharma on Thursday announced that they were joining the TMC virtually ending the last bastion of the opposition in the state.
(Manas Dasgupta)