Bengaluru civic pollsgoes the BJP way; PM Modi hails victory

Prime Minister Narendra Modi  tweeted thanking the voters of the city for the support given to the BJP.

After MP & Rajasthan, BBMP poll results complete a hat-trick of wins for BJP. This is a win for politics of development & good governance.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 25, 2015

While the Congress was tipped to win the elections narrowly since local polls tend to go the way of the party in power in the state, it only managed to improve its BBMP council numbers from 58 (2009) to 76 in the current elections.

#BBMPResults : BJP workers celebrate in Bengaluru pic.twitter.com/w2cMDZMCpm

— ANI (@ANI_news) August 25, 2015

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The party’s hopes to cash in on anti-incumbency and to benefit from a low voter turnout — 49 per cent — fell flat as the results were declared.

Hailing the victory as people’s mandate against Congress’s “negative politics”, BJP national president Amit Shah said: “This is a victory for our ideology of sabka saath, sabka vikas (development for all).”

BBMP election results: A BJP win in the BBMP elections will be a huge setback for Congress and CM Siddaramaiah

Interestingly, the Congress campaign was led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah himself, who extensively toured the city asking voters to back the party.

The Congress was widely perceived to have paid the price for delaying the launch of its campaign and dilly-dallying too long over the idea of splitting Bengaluru into smaller units.