Cong gets fresh lease of life in GP polls

MANGALORE: The gram panchayat (GP) elections in Dakshina Kannada have given a fresh lease of life for the Congress that was baffled over the debacles in the elections held in recent times.
Though the elections for these grass root democratic institutions are held on non-party basis, no more it remained a secret that the party spirit played a role here too.Party leaders finalized the list of their respective candidates in each of the wards, even though party symbols were not allotted to candidates. Calculations were made following the winning of the candidates backed by different political parties.
Based on these calculations the Congress-backed candidates had an upper hand over the BJP-backed candidates in Dakshina Kannada district and the performance of both the parties were equal in Udupi district.
Out of 201 GPs for which elections were held in Dakshina Kannda, Congress won in 103 and BJP in 70. In 30 GPs no one could gain majority to rule on their own. Interestingly, no other party is in a position to rule any GP on its own. They have either to align with Congress or BJP. It is noteworthy that both the parties have lost some of GPs considered their bastions.
Other major parties like JD(S) and left parties have failed to show satisfactory performance. However, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), a new entrant has its candidates winning in 39 seats, the highest number of seats that the party has bagged in the state.
It appears that the development play card of BJP has failed to convince the voters in the grass root level. While the party had seen a major set backs in assembly constituencies having BJP legislators, the Congress legislators could retain the hold on GPs in their respective constituencies. Voters in some of the GPs having famous religious centres like Dharmasthala, Subramanya and Kateel, which were under BJP rule last time, have opted for a change by winning the Congress candidates.
Mangalore MLA U T Khader told The Times of India that the GP election results indicated that rural voters were regretting for voting BJP to power in the last assembly elections. The state government's failure to tackle the rural peoples issues reflected in the election results, he said.