By Nithin Sridhar

Bengaluru: Monday was a day of celebration for the Karnataka state unit of BJP as it won the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) elections and retained its hold over Benguluru Municipal Corporation.

Breaking away from the tradition of state's ruling party winning the Benguluru municipal elections, Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) defeated the ruling Congress and managed to retain its power.

Congress Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that, though the result does not reflect on the state government, yet he would accept the moral responsibility for the defeat.

The Municipal council has a total of 198 seats. Out of this, BJP grabbed 100 seats, just 3 seats short to attain a simple majority of 103. The Congress and JD (S) won 76 seats and 14 seats respectively.

Congress' strategy during the election was based on highlighting the scams during BJP rule and projecting development of Bengaluru into a high-tech city. This strategy has been clearly rejected by people of the city by decisively voting for the BJP.

But, compared to previous BBMP elections, Congress gained 11 seats whereas BJP lost 11 seats. JD (S) also lost one seat. In 2010, BJP had come to power with 111 seats, where as Congress had registered 65 seats.

However, BJP is projecting this victory as a rejection by people of the Congress rule in the State.