Lack of understanding between some leaders cost the Congress a few seats in the Belagavi City Corporation elections, Satish Jarkiholi, KPCC working president, said in Belagavi on Wednesday.
He said the Congress had lost around three wards in Belagavi south and five in Belagavi north. “I had told the KPCC president that we would win 15 seats, but we ended up winning 10. Five Independents are our supporters. I think it is quite satisfactory,” he said.
“We are analysing the results and we will learn from them. However, our vote share remains intact. “Our candidates got a total of around 42,000 votes and the Independents supported by us got around 20,000 votes. This is equal to the BJP that got around 63,000 votes,” he said.
To a query on reports that Laxmi Hebbalkar, MLA, was responsible for the loss in some wards, he said she could not be blamed for the results as her constituency lies outside the city.
He said the BJP had gained politically, by some differences that arose between the voters of Maratha community and the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti supporters. BJP has used the Maratha community voters to win more wards, Mr. Jarkiholi said.
Later, at the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Raj Sanghatan meeting, he accused the BJP of getting credit for the schemes started by the Congress government. “The Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government is doing nothing but renaming good schemes started by the UPA government.”
He felt that the government was spending money on civil construction works neglecting schemes and projects that could nurture human resource. “The government is building toilets for the sake of creating records. It is not bothered if people are using them. I see that in several villages, the new toilets have fallen into disuse,” he said.
He urged the Congress workers elected to rural local bodies to utilise the government grants released to gram panchayats and other local bodies, for the development of villages and welfare of the people. He urged them to study the laws and administrative procedure to ensure smooth governance and avoid conflicts with officers. He also asked members to promote self-help groups of women so that they are financially independent and become entrepreneurs.
Sanghatan leaders Vijay Singh, Binita Vohra, former MLAs D.R. Patil, Veer Kumar Patil, and others were present.
