Bengaluru: Though the opposition BJP came up with a good overall performance in the ZP-TP elections, it failed to win over rural voters in the Mumbai Karnataka region.
The party failed to secure a decisive verdict in districts like Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad, Haveri, Gadag, Vijaypura, Bagalkot and Uttar Kannada districts with the Congress making inroads in the region, hitherto considered a BJP stronghold.
The Congress secured a clear majority in Uttar Kannada, Haveri and Gadag. In Hubballi-Dharwad, to attain power, the BJP needs one more seat, while in Bagalkote and Vijayapura, it needs two more seats each.
Party sources said the failure of BJP in handling the Kalasa-Banduri drinking water project row proved costly for the party in Mumbai-Karnataka.
The Congress succeeded in exploiting the issue to the hilt, pinpointing BJP’s failure in settling the issue and communicating this to rural voters effectively.
“Kalasa-Banduri partially affected our results in Mumbai Karnataka. Another reason was the resource crunch and the lack of co-ordination among local leaders”, Party spokesperson C.T. Ravi told this newspaper.
“We gained in Hyderabad-Karnataka because of our social engineering formula. Even district leaders worked hard in the elections,” Mr Ravi added.
