Southern States - Karnataka   

Cong. wins K.R. Puram CMC poll

By K.V.Subramanya

BANGALORE AUG. 11. The Congress has returned to power with renewed strength in the K.R. Puram City Municipal Council (CMC) by winning 21 of the 35 seats. The election was held on Sunday.

The Janata Dal parties, which fought the election on the JD(S) symbol in all the 35 wards, won 10 seats. The BJP was the major casualty with just two seats.

Two independent candidates, one of whom is a Congress worker, who had failed to submit the "B" form, were the other winners. In all, 170 candidates were in the fray.

The verdict should be a morale-booster for the Congress, particularly, the Social Welfare Minister and Varthur MLA, A.Krishnappa, who led the party's campaign. The Opposition parties had made the alleged multi-crore scam in the Congress-ruled K.R. Puram City Municipal Council a major poll issue.

`Fight against corruption'

In the run-up to the elections, the Janata Dal parties, under the leadership of the former Minister, Ashwathnaraya Reddy, staged a series of agitations demanding Mr. Krishnappa's resignation for his alleged role in the scam, which was unearthed by the Lokayukta.

Mr. Krishnappa said the people had given a "fitting reply" to the allegations of the Opposition parties.

``I am grateful to the people who have endorsed the good work done by the S.M. Krishna Government, the Congress under the leadership of the State unit president, B. Janardhan Poojary, and also a little service of mine and voted us to back to power," Mr. Krishnappa told The Hindu.

Mr. Krishnappa's bete noire, Mr. Reddy described the election result as an "endorsement of corruption" by the public.

Mr. Reddy said as the "Janata Parivar" had fought the elections in the K.R. Puram City Municipal Council making corruption the main issue, the party's defeat was the defeat of its fight against corruption.

The former Minister alleged that the Congress candidates had won the elections by distributing money, pressure cookers, and saris to the voters.

"Our candidates did not have the resources to match that of the Congress. Besides, Muslim voters did not support us," he claimed.

For the BJP, the stakes were not high. This was the first election the BJP had faced after the former Union Minister, H.N. Ananth Kumar, took over as its State unit president.

Although a few other parties, including the Communist Party of India and the Bahujan Samaj Party, had fielded their candidates, they ended up as also-rans.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Cong. wins K.R. Puram CMC poll
• Cloud seeding operations may start next week
• World Bank lauds State's success in IT
• Parking fee: HC quashes petitions
• Dasara: Plan to rope in private firms resented
• Jayagovind is NLSIU Director

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu