Bengaluru: Out of about 84,000 seats, results of 60,000 have been announced so far for the recently concluded elections to 5,844 Gram Panchayats in the state, which were held in two phases and fought on non-party basis, said Karnataka State Election Commissioner P N Srinivasachari.
The elections were on May 29 and June 2. 94,348 candidates contested the polls and about 8,800 of them were elected unopposed, he said.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah claimed that in majority of the districts, Congress-supported candidates won the elections. “The voters have entrusted faith in the state administration and our welfare programme. Therefore they have voted Congress-supported candidates in the Gram Panchayat elections,” he said.
BJP senior leader and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said the results have been very satisfactory for it as the BJP-supported candidates has won nearly 60 per cent of the seats for which results are declared. “We are confident many more seats will be won by the time final election results are announced,” he said.
Shettar said rural voters have rejected Congress. “The mandate is clear they have expressed their disapproval of Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning,” he said.
State BJP President Prahalad Joshi claimed that the BJP-supported candidates have won majority of the seats and the rural base of the party strengthened further.
The SEC for the first time had used electronic voting machines (EVMs) on a pilot basis in 1,150 polling booths of 178 Gram Panchayats in Bidar district.
Heavy security has been provided at the counting centres across the state.
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