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. (NAV, Inputs: Agencies)
