Just a week after its rout in the general election, the Congress has gained some respite. In Karnataka’s urban local body (ULB) elections, held on May 29 across 20 districts, the party won an impressive 42% of seats, including key ones.ULBs are the most basic units of democracy – elected bodies that administer and provide services such as healthcare, street lighting, fire safety, public spaces, water supply, sewage and sanitation. ULBs also handle vital records that citizens require, such as birth and death certificates.Polls were held across 56 ULBs, including city municipalities, town municipalities and town panchayats. Of the 1,221 seats, the Congress bagged 509, the BJP 366 seats. The JD(S) emerged on top in 174 seats, while independents claimed 160. The Bahjuan Samajwadi Party also won three, CPI(M) two seats, while other parties won seven.The Congress is obviously delighted at the signal of faith from the electorate, just a week after the near decimation in the Lok Sabha elections – when the party won only a single seat, from Bengaluru rural, of 28 in the state. But it has also prompted the party to question the split decision of voters.Also read: Has Congress Been Delivered a Death Blow in Karnataka?After the results were out, Karnataka Congress, through its official Twitter handle, thanked voters for “standing by Congress” and for having “…committed to their faith in us”.Celebrating the result, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, while saying the ULB verdict “clearly shows that the people of Karnataka are with the Congress”, threw doubt over the Lok Sabha election. “What surprises me is how did BJP lose after winning by huge margins in the Loksabha. Needs investigation,” he tweeted.According to Krishna Prasad, political analyst and former editor-in-chief of Outlook, the results of the ULB polls could mean their ground-level leaders have delivered good administration. “ULBs bring politics to people on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “The Congress has a reason to introspect on how their local leaders managed to clinch seats when the top echelons failed so miserably in the Lok Sabha elections.”“Another way of looking at this is, the conventional method that we all know of. People vote differently during different kind of polls,” he added.In that vein, Azim Premji University professor A. Narayana, who teaches politics and development, says ULB elections shouldn’t be compared to the Lok Sabha elections. He said the voters view these two elections differently.“During Lok Sabha polls, the message was clear,” he said. “People chose to vote for Modi – even the party didn’t matter – and they ignored the candidate, no matter what he or she did or didn’t do. The candidate’s potential, popularity were also not considered. People voted for the leader, for the person they wanted to be the PM. But ULBs are not like that. People vote for candidates and as an endorsement for the services they have been offered by the candidate. The personal connect is the winning factor here.”Ramakrishna of Kamalapura near Hampi said his victory is the result of the constant personal connection he maintained with voters. “Congress has swept Kamalapura ULB polls,” he beams. “When you are a candidate for a local body, you have the chance to connect with almost every voter. The geographical areas are small enough to know each family that resides there. That helped me win the seat.”Also read: The Congress Needs a Bracing Civil WarDoes this mean Congress has a reason to celebrate? Prof Narayana feels so. “Yes, of course. After the BJP wave in the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress’s surge in ULBs proves there is some light at the end of tunnel for the Congress. One could also say the BJP hasn’t made the connect with the smallest units of democratic governance. There is still scope to revive the party through local leaders who have made these results possible.”The Congress and the JD(S) coalition tanked in the Lok Sabha polls, with each winning just a single seat, despite a seat-sharing arrangement to unite the anti-BJP vote.For the ULB polls, the allies decided to fight on their own might. The results were greatly improved. Having contested the elections as rivals, however, the two parties will come together to discharge those administrative duties.