Bengaluru: If state intelligence sources are to be believed, the opposition BJP will continue to retain the upper hand in the zilla and taluk panchayats, which went to polls on February 13 and 20. Votes will be counted on Tuesday.
The BJP had won 1,500 seats and the Congress, 1,222 in the TP polls held in 2011. Of the 1,013 ZP seats, the BJP had bagged 441 and the Congress, 353.
An internal assessment of the intelligence wing does not give details of the seats each party will win but says the political environment does not bode well for the ruling party.
The reasons are the wristwatch row involving Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Labour minister Parameshwar Naik’s ding dong battle with a woman police officer whom he got transferred, and Hindu-Muslim polarisation.
Most polls have not been going the Congress way except the MLC polls from local body constituencies, which the party won convincingly. The ZP/TP polls were held in fifteen districts after the recent Assembly by-poll results on February 15, which might have swayed voters. The BJP had won two of the three seats.
