Karnataka municipal election results 2018: Congress leading with 982 seats, BJP bags 929

Bengaluru: In a close contest with the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Karnataka municipal polls, the Congress came out just ahead winning 982 of the total 2,662 seats that were up for grabs. The BJP came to a close second winning 929 seats. The Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy's party Janata Dal (Secular) was a distant third with 375 seats, while independents won 329 seats.

Polling was held on August for over the 100 urban local bodies across 21 districts.

The Congress and JD(S) are likely to form post-poll alliances in several local bodies to keep the BJP out of power. In the event of either party not getting majority on its own in the ULB elections, we



will have post-poll alliance to rule the local bodies as we did to form the coalition government in the state after the May 12 assembly election threw a hung House with a split verdict, a JD(S) official told IANS.

The elections were held in 21 of the 30 districts across the state. Polling was held for 29 city municipal councils, 53 town municipal councils and 23 town panchayats. The polling on August 31 had recorded an impressive 67.51 per cent voter turnout.

The Congress had won 1,960 of 4,976 seats in the 2013 urban local bodies elections. The BJP and the JD(S) had secured 905 seats each that year. The remaining 1,206 seats were bagged by Independents.