BJP thumps Cong to seal Bengaluru civic polls

The Bharatiya Janata Party has plenty to smile about, after it swept the elections to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike or the Bengaluru Municipal Corporation which had remained dissolved for three years.

The BJP won 112 out of the 196 seats while the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular managed just 64 and 15 respectively.

Although the magic number is 126, the BJP will have no problem in electing its candidate as Mayor, since the party has 30 captive votes in the form of Members of the Legislative Assembly, the Council and the Members of Parliament.

These 30 members who hail from constituencies in Bengaluru are eligible to vote for the post of Mayor.

The BJP maintained a steady lead throughout the day and barely a couple of hours after the counting commenced, the seat share of the party had soared to 100.

The BJP, however, claimed that it was expecting 90 seats, but now party leaders say that this has come as a surprise to them.

The BBMP had remained dissolved for three years and each government that was in power had postponed the elections, thus forcing a litigation in the court.

The Karnataka high court finally in its verdict directed the government to conduct elections to the local body as soon as possible.

Prior to the Bengaluru corporation being dissolved, it was the Congress party which was in majority.