Karnataka Municipal Elections: Lotus Blooms In Belagavi After Almost Two Decades; AIMIM Records Four Debut Victories

The final results of the three North Karnataka civic body elections were announced this afternoon. While the Bharatiya Janata Party hailed its performance in Belagavi where it won an absolute majority after 17 years, the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) too made inroads into electoral politics by winning three seats in Hubballi-Dharwad.

Civic body elections were held in Belagavi, Hubballi-Dharwad and Kalaburgi on 3 September 2021. These are the first polls being held under the current Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and also said to set the tone for the upcoming taluk and Zilla panchayat and BBMP elections. This is also the first time the candidates of all key parties have contested on their respective party symbols.

In Belagavi, the BJP managed to set a record as it swept 36 seats leaving Congress with nine and the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti (MES) with just four seats. The reduced sheen of the MES is a reflection of its waning power over the Marathi-speaking populace of the district. MES, an ally of the Shiv Sena, contested nine seats but could retain only three, despite having raked up the border dispute multiple times over the last one year. The BJP government then led by former CM B S Yediyurappa had setup a Marathi Development corporation with a grant of Rs 50 crore.

CM Basavaraj Bommai, whose hometown Hubballi-Dharwad too is likely to see a BJP mayor, tweeted thanking all ‘enlightened voters’ for backing BJP candidates in the civic body elections.

The Chief whip of the government of Karnataka and Member of Legislative Council from Belagavi Mahantesh Kavatagimath tweeted saying, this victory after 17 years is a result of BJP’s development-oriented governance and politics. BJP workers took to the streets rejoicing at their victory, amidst Covid norms and regulations in place, due to which the police had to resort to mild lathicharge to disperse the crowd.

In Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s hometown Hubballi-Dharwad, it was a hung verdict but the BJP is the strongest contender for the mayoral post as it has 39 out of the 82 wards to its name, and will have three MLAs, two MLCs and one MP voting, while the Congress has just one vote of its MLC. While the BJP was just two seats short of a clear majority, the Congress stood second at 33, while the AIMIM opened its account here too, winning three wards.

The state’s regional party JD(S) has been reduced to a single ward in the twin district but may end up playing kingmaker in another district, Kalaburgi, which again has a hung verdict. Both the national parties had a neck and neck battle with Congress winning 27 out of the 55 wards while BJP stood at 23. The JD(S) has four wards in its kitty while one ward was one by an independent candidate.

Thirty-two would be the magic number here for the mayoral post which takes a total of 63 votes into account. With both national parties' counts standing at 29 each (adding the respective MLAs to BJP and Congress both, and MP to BJP), JD(S) with its four votes would get to decide the mayoral fate of the two parties.

The Aam Aadmi Party failed to win a single ward in both Belagavi and Kalaburgi where it contested 27 and 26 wards respectively, while winning three in Hubballi where it had 41 of its candidates contesting.